Alternate medications symptoms and conditions

I have been on Advair for almost 2 months and have gained 7 pounds. My Albuterol wasn't controlling my asthma so therefore, I was prescribed Advair. Since it is a type of steroid I was wondering if this was the reason for the weight gain. It seemed as if the weight gain started almost immediately after given the prescription. I have noticed alot of hypertension. My asthma is still not under control so I am going to go off Advair and see what happens. Of course, I will keep my doctor informed and seek alternate medications. I

My son is 6. He started Singulair when he was 3 because of a very serious caugh that wouldn't go away and after several doctors - it was diagnosed that he had allergies. He was on Singulair for a little over a year. I didn't pay attention to the signs of the side effects as I thought he was a typical boy acting out. Once we started allergy shots the dr. took him off the Singulair. I noticed his behavior being much better, but figured he was getting older and more mature. About 8 months ago we stopped the shots. He was fine (no caughing) up until July then he started caughing very badly again so in the time before we could start the allergy shots again, we put him back on Singulair. OMG!!! My sweet little boy vanished and the devil took his place. After 2 days of horrible behavior, yelling, running through the house like a crazy man, hitting his sister, and breaking things, I stopped the Singulair. Within 24 hours he was back to normal. He also had a severe stomach ache on the 2nd day. Because of these side effects I am not comfortable putting him back on the medication. I can't imagine him trying to function during school on this stuff and certainly wouldn't want him to be labled as a "bad kid".

Does anyone know of any possible alternate medications that would control caughing as quickly and as well as Singulair did, but without the nasty side effects?