It's becoming increasingly apparent that doctors -- psychiatrists especially -- are far too cavalier in prescribing behavior-altering drugs for children. Earlier this month word came down that maybe kids under the age of six shouldn't be given over-the-counter cough medicine. Yet there hasn't been a similar reconsideration on all sorts of other drugs -- or if there has, it obviously hasn't been enough.

Late last year, 4-year-old Rebecca Riley died of a drug overdose. She didn't get into her parents' stash of heroin or cocaine. No, instead her parents overdosed her on drugs that the little girl had been prescribed -- Clonidine, Depakote -- and OTC cough suppressant and antihistamine.

The two brand-name prescription drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in adults only, though doctors can legally prescribe them to youngsters and do so frequently.

But here's the kicker -- why was little Rebecca on all those drugs?

Rebecca's parents, Michael and Carolyn Riley, say they were only following doctor's orders. Rebecca, they told police, had been diagnosed when she was just 2 1/2, and Rebecca's psychiatrist prescribed the same potent drugs that had been prescribed for her older brother and sister when she diagnosed them with the same illnesses several years earlier.

What had the psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji -- who should also be in jail -- diagnosed in Rebecca? Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and bipolar disorder. At age 2 /12!

I am not making this up.

Rebecca's uncle, James McGonnell, and his girlfriend, Kelly Williams, who lived with the Rileys, told police that the Rileys would put their kids to bed as early as 5 p.m. Rebecca, they said, often slept through the day and got up only to eat.

When Michael Riley decided the kids were "acting up," he told Carolyn to give them pills, McGonnell and Williams told police.

According to McGonnell and Williams, Rebecca spent the last days of her life wandering around the house, sick and disoriented. But the Rileys told police they were not alarmed. "It was just a cold," Carolyn repeatedly said during police interviews.

The medical examiner said Rebecca died a slow and painful death. She said the overdose of Clonidine caused her organs to shut down, filling her lungs with fluid and causing congestive heart failure.

Williams told police that the night before she died, Rebecca was pale and seemed "out of it." At one point, the little girl knocked weakly on her parents' bedroom door and softly called for her mommy, but Michael Riley opened the door a crack and yelled at her to go back to her room, Williams said.

Later that night, McGonnell told police, he heard someone struggling to breathe and found Rebecca gurgling as if something was stuck in her throat. McGonnell told police he wiped vomit from his niece's face, then kicked in the door to her parents' room and yelled at the Rileys to take Rebecca to the emergency room.

Instead, Carolyn Riley said, she gave her daughter a half-tablet of Clonidine.

Three people should serve a very long time in jail: both parents and the psychiatrist. The uncle and his girlfriend probably bear some responsibility too, but that is moral and not legal.

And still a little 4-year-old girl is dead.