Chronic coughing symptoms and conditions

I put my then three year old son on Singulair because he was having chronic coughing in the winter months following colds. I was told it was a form of asthma and Singulair would help. It did immediately end the coughing, but I noticed an immediate effect on his mood. My once sweet son turned volatile and violent. Even biting and hitting me for the first time ever. I took him off the medication in a matter of a week or two and the violent behavior and crying fits ended within a few days and has never returned. I will never use that medication again. I urge others with children to avoid it.

OMG! This site is awesome! I honestly thought I was going crazy and something else was wrong with me! I quit smoking back in Dec 2007 and early Jan 2008 I was diagnosed with bronchitis. The bronchitis eventually got worse and at the end of Jan dr put me on steroid packs and an inhaler to assist me with the congestions. Early Feb I was diagnosed with Chronic bronchitis and was sent to a lung specialist. My lungs were only expanding 40% capacity due to the infection in my lungs so I was prescriped the inhaler, antibiotics, seven days of seroid and the Advair twice a day. I have now been using the Advair about three weeks and even though I feel a whole lot better my side effects are bad. I have a lot of congestion still, especially in the mornings, I cough almost all day long, I sleep maybe four or five hours a night (if that), my mood swings are aweful, I have a sharp pain under neath my left arm pit every once in a while, my rib cage hurts 24/7, I get headaches at least once a day, my nose is bleeding at least once a day and my hands tingle all the time. I did not realize that all these symptoms were side effects to the Advair dosage... 250/50???? OMG... I have to stop taking it. I've never had allergies or asthma up until the chronic bronchitis but if these are side-effects to the Advair I wonder if I was just not better off fighting the bronchitis through antibiotis only. I have not experianced weight gain though, and I am thankful for that as I do not need to gain any more weight. :-) Thank you all for sharing your comments as I now know that I might be just fine using allergy medicines and an inhaler from time to time instead of using Advair twice a day.

I don't typically write on message boards, but wanted to share my story. I wish I knew about the affects of singular before I gave it to our son.

My 3 year old son was put on Singular and 2 puffers at age 2 1/2. He had chronic coughing and croup and seemed to always have throat infections. Our Family Doctor thought it was seasonal allergies, (and because he was under the age of 6 - no allergy testing can truly be done) so she prescribed Singular. As tired parents of a little boy who didn't seem to sleep through the night any longer, we did as the doctor advised and gave him the medication every night.

Almost immediately, his behavior changed from a happy 2 1/2 year old to a child with severe tantrums (we never experienced this behavior before), terrible night terrors to the point we were having trouble with him going to bed at night and him telling us every day he had leg pain. He would cry and hold his little leg - limping. Our son could speak at a very young age, so he was able to articulate his feelings/reactions to us. We thought we were entering the terrible "2's" late, but through our experience and ours alone I am certain it was the singular. After this I decided to check online only to be overwhelmed with similar reactions to this drug. We immediately stopped giving the drug to him. We had noticed that his tonsils were getting larger and larger and they would often have infected white soars over them. Off we would go to the Doctor who told us it may or may not be strep and prescribe antibiotics, he would complete a cycle of antibiotics and within 10 days the symptoms would return. We demanded we see a throat specialist to see if the coughing/sleep apnea and terrible drooling could be caused by his huge tonsils. He progressively stopped eating his favorite foods and would wince every time we served him meat.

We finally saw a specialist and at first look at our little boys’ throat, the specialist said 2 things: 1) "Let me guess, he will only eat pasta?" - which was the case, apparently it was the only thing he was able to eat without pain; and 2) "I do not know how this little boy isn't acting out more, he has to be in so much pain". The specialist explained that every time he coughed or ate, the infected soars on his tonsils would burst causing nausea and pain. Because it hurt to swallow, saliva would pool in his throat causing his terrible coughing fits. He had his tonsils/adenoids removed 3 weeks after our visit (which isn't done as often as it used to be) and he has been PERFECT ever since. He hasn't had 1 cold, he hasn't coughed one night and he is eating/laughing/playing like the child he was before singular. DO NOT TAKE SINGULAR unless they can conduct the proper asthma/allergy testing appropriate for the child's age. They were medicating my child with the assumption that he MAY have it. The reason for his coughing and wheezing was his enormous tonsils. A procedure which was hard to go through with a 3 year old, but he is truly a different child today.

I trust this information will be helpful to parents in the same situation.

My 2 1/2 year old son started taking Singular 2 weeks ago. We have noticed a change in his attitude. He hits and pushes his 5 year old sister. He cries ALL the time. His nose continuelous is runny. Last week, he woke up and was vomiting but had no temperature. He also cried and said his chest hurt.

We took him to the DR, and they said that it was just a tummy bug and that he was fine.

Yesterday, (week 2) I picked him up from the nanny's house and he had red hives (welts) that were on his neck, behind the ears, his tummy and on his side. Some were very large. He was wheezing and I checked his Oxygen level and it had dropped to 91/92. The danger zone for him is 89. So we gave him albuterol treatment and his Oxygen shoot up to 97, whcih was fine.

He has had a chronic coughing, and he won't eat very much (before he would eat everything and want more). He cries alot at night. One night he woke up 2X screeming. Like he was in pain. Got him calmed down and he said his tummy hurt.
After his bath, I was rubbing lotion on his leg and he pulled his legs away crying and said they hurt.

After reading everything here, I KNOW IT IS THE SINGULAR. I am going to print of this web page and take it back to my son "Specialist" DR that I paid $120 to see my son, and tell the DR to put this in my son's file!

Thank you to everyone who has made their private lives public so the rest of us may learn in time.

God Bless Mon, 31 Jan 2005 12:19:31 -0600 by mylittleangel, #9151 for sharing her sad, heartfelt story, and stoping other children from the same fate. My heart goes out to her and her family.

I'm waiting for my doctor to call me back - it's a Friday around 3 p.m. so I probably won't hear from him until Monday. BUT I AM SO EXCITED!! I really feel that I have discovered the cause of my chronic coughing. Here's the lowdown: I had been taking Diovan for a few years, along with another blood pressure med. All was fine. Then we had to change medical coverage and the Diovan was not approved, so shortly after the first of the year (2004) I started taking Lisinopril. I've had an awful time, but I didn't know why until today. I had bronchitis in November '03, then again in February '04. So I was already coughing when I started Lisinopril. I coughed incessantly. Now I realize that I was coughing both from bronchitis AND from the constant tickle in my throat. About 10 days after the Feb. bout of bronchitis began I was in awful pain in the right side of my rib cage. Had lung xrays, rib xrays. Lungs clear. No fracture could be seen, but I was told that 25% of rib fractures do not show up on xray. I was prescribed Hydrochodone for pain, but I took 2 pills and that was the end of those pills. I have to drive & work, and could not function. I am still coughing, but not from my chest as would be the case with bronchitis. It's been driving me crazy, and people at work are somewhat annoyed because I cough all day. TODAY WAS MY LUCKY DAY. All this time I had been trying to determine why I was still coughing from bronchitis. When I got on the Internet & typed in "scratchy throat coughing" I got lots of things that said Lisinopril could be the cause. Then I found your forum and I could not believe it!! I'm ecstatic because I'm sure this has been the problem with my dry, hacking cough - just like some of you, it makes me gag, then my eyes water which makes me sneeze, etc. I will get back to this forum for a final confirmation, but thanks to all of you for taking the time to write your comments. It has been a huge help to me. Bless you all.