Asthma episode symptoms and conditions

Today is 4years exactly that Matt had his one and only asthma episode,that sent us done the road of singulair disaster,7 months of the drug now thanks to Kate who went public with her story.Each new day brings more hope for a full recovery,although the road is long and strewn with guilt and anger.First i was angry with my doctor,then Merck now the FDA,but the guilt always stayed with me.Ive spent hours on wouldas couldas and shouldas but none the less it is what it is.I have had an education in things i really didn't want to know,the medical system,the justice system,and our government.I have written hundreds of letters reported 3 times to the FDA,never a response other than your email was received,called and reported to Merck twice,they were always ready and willing to take my info,so today i wrote to the FBI asking if they could investigate corruption at the FDA,proberly they will laugh and trow it out,or maybe even put me on a list of some kind,but i will leave no stone unturned until some one explains to me how this happened in America

my daughter is 7 and has been taking Singulair for the past year. she has exhibited many of the symptoms described in these blogs.....she constantly complains of stomach aches and headaches. wakes up at night saying mommy i had a bad dream....(has not done this prior)....her closet door must be closed at all times (new to her)....she cannot have the bathroom door fully closed,again new to her.......she wakes up and does not want to go to school, new to her!!!!!! she also complains of itching, she itches herself to the points of opening her skin.......i had stopped the Singulair this past February and could not believe what a change in her behavior. she had to go back on it after asthma episode and once again i notice her change in behavior. i recently stopped it after she began crying saying, mommy i am a bad person, i did not brush my teeth tonight....the next day i heard the news of the mood side affects and threw the Singulair out!

My 3 1/2 year old son has been on Singulair for 4 days now. Needless to say, I am grateful to have stumbled across this website when I googled "asthma medications, nosebleed" after he had the first spontaneous nosebleed of his life, yesterday. Since this had never occurred before, I wondered if his meds could have something to do with it. (He is also on Flovent and Ventolin as he has just suffered his second asthma episode in a month. He has been on both these meds before and I have not witnessed any notable adverse effects with these)
I have also noticed a slight shift in his attitude and willingness to do as he's asked since day 1 of Singulair. This is extremely unusual for my very sweet, cooperative, focused child. He also stated today that he did not love his older brother, whom he adores. He has actually hit me and kicked me on several occasions, which is so unlike my little momma's boy, it had me wondering about the Singulair even before I came across this website.

I am also wondering if anyone knows whether Flovent or Ventolin can cause extremely frequent urination? He is running to the bathroom every few minutes at times. (this was happening before starting on Singulair)
His urinalysis shows that he has no bladder infection and sugar is normal. Help!!!

My daughter, who was 7 years old when prescribed Advair, became moody, sullen, disobedient and cranky. I have since taken her off it because it bothered me so much to see her not getting along with kids at school, having attitude problems at home and school and just generally being discontented most of the time. She is gradually returning to her former self (although is currently experiencing an asthma episode but its the first bad one she's had in about a year). I will resisit any further efforts to put her back on it. One doctor, although nice, was almost shaming in his effort to get her on it. Not all medications work for all people.

I first posted about three weeks ago re: my 3 1/2 year old son who was taken off Singulair around the first of September. All the bizarre symptoms (mood swings, itching, tummy aches, etc.) he was experiencing are gone and he is still doing great in that regard. However, he caught a cold after starting back to preschool (which always turns into an asthma episode for him) and, as expected, we ended up having to use an oral steroid to pull him through. So ... we were happily off Singulair but still needed a method to deal with what would inevitably be more problems from his asthma. I had heard that some asthmatics have success when changing their diet and so decided that we really had nothing to lose and started to research this issue. While we knew that my son was not allergic to the foods that are typically known as allergens (due to past allergy testing), I learned that a food intolerance is totally different from a food allergy, and does not show up with testing. Most all of the food you buy at the store these days is loaded with preservatives, chemicals and artificial colors. I learned that sulfites can be particularly dangerous for asthmatics and that many also react to food colorings. While these things do not cause an immediate reaction in my son, the theory is that when these foods are consumed regularly, they weaken his immune system and thus make him more suscepticle to have an asthma episode when he does get a cold. There is a book called Fed Up with Asthma that explores this theory that was written by Sue Dengate out of Australia. While we have not gone on what she calls a "failsafe" elimination diet (it seems a little extreme for us), we did decide to experiment with buying all organic foods to see what happens and started on that quest about 2-3 weeks ago. Foods that are certified organic are supposed to be free of pesticides, preservatives, colors, etc. Last week, my son got another cold and this is the first time in 3 years that we have not had to use an oral steroid to get him over it. It was just like he was any other kid with a little cold. Another thing that I read about was that many asthmatics have a reaction to milk (which the medical community flatly denies) and the one lingering symptom we had after stopping the Singulair was a persistent cough that was not associated with illness, was not accompanied by a wheeze, and had no obvious origin. We switched my son to soy milk about 2 weeks ago, and the cough is gone. I also have a 17-month-old who is asthma-free (at least so far) but does have eczema, which I have learned is also thought to be affected by the consumption of cow's milk. When we switched from cow's milk to soy milk, his eczema completely cleared up, too. 6 months ago I would have laughed at someone who said that what I thought was healthy food I bought at the grocery store contributed to my son's asthma, but we have just had too many coincidences to ignore what we are seeing. I just figured I had nothing to lose by trying the organic route, and I'm glad I did it. Good luck.