First grade symptoms and conditions

An allergist prescribed Singulair for my son when he was starting first grade for asthma/allergy prevention. The side affects were immediate. He became very explosive, angry, panicky and paranoid. Worst of all, he developed severe nightmares. We would be awakened at about 11:30 when he started yelling. He was terrified and could not fully awaken to come out of the nightmare. He dreamed he was being chased by meat-eating dinosaurs. It took a while for him to explain because his speech skills were delayed. About a week into this, I decided to take him off Singulair and was relieved to find the symptoms completely disappeared. I would not recommend this drug for children. Their brains are still developing. It would be like giving them meth!

My son is in second grade and has been on Zyrtec and singular since he was four years old. He was diagnosed with asthma and peanut and tree nut allergies. He has always been the sweetest kid. However, we noticed in first grade that he was spacing out and not always focused. he became easily frustrated, did not want to do his homework, cried for everything and gave up easily. This year in second grade we are noticing the same thing in addition to talking back, being aggressive with his brother, rolling his eyes and having a nasty disposition. He is negative and complains a lot. His grades have been suffering greatly. He rushes through his school work and does not pay attention or try.
I am so happy for the reading that I am seeing on this site. My son is coming off the singulair and the Zyrtec first thing in the morning.

Our story is so similar to many of the others posted. I am including it because it adds to the data. Our 12 year old son has been on Singulair since age 7. Prior to going on Singulair (although I did not make the connection between these two events until this week..) he was an easy-going, happy, delightful boy. During the late fall of first grade he started developing strange behaviors--obsessive hand-washing, kicking our pediatrician, saying the water was poisoned. He is continuously irritable, moody, easily annoyed, impulsive, self-critical and has difficulty modulating his attention. He has had a few incidents where he has said he wants to die, he is worthless and a loser. He continually apologizes for his behaviors and is extremely remorseful, but then goes and does it again. We have seen so many specialists, spent so much money on counseling, have tried neurofeedback, Adderall, alternative supplements (eg omega 3's)...the list goes on. His issues have been like a part-time job for me. I never made the connection to Singulair, because the pediatrician and allergist assured me that Singuair had virtually no side effects. Right after the New Year (2008) he had a few days where everything seemed to go right for him-- moodiness disappeared, did his homework agreeably, seemed truly happy for the first time in a long time. In retrospect, I am guessing it is because we forgot to bring his Singulair on our vacation, so it was out of his system for several days. Now that we've tossed the meds, I'm hoping that the side effects are short lived...and we see our old son again.

As for the individual who wrote that we may be ambulance chasers, I can promise you that any money I receive in a successful class-action law suit would go towards helping other families avoid the pain and suffering our son has gone through. I consider myself an educated & well-informed parent and yet I was blind-sided by the medical industry.

Our story is like so many of yours…My son, 7, started Singulair at 2 ½ after a hospital visit and too many rounds of oral steroids. When he started Kindergarten at age 5 his behavior became increasingly problematic. It was hard for him to meet new people - something we had noticed at birthday parties in preschool, where he clung to me the whole time. He became more and more anxious, ran out of the class, didn’t really socialize, chewed his shirt, wouldn’t talk to people he didn’t know (or even look at people). I thought - he’ll adjust, he’ll be ok - he did well in preschool (although looking back, there were some repeated behavior problems there as well). By November the teacher told me she was really starting to worry about him - that he was depressed. I took him to a psychologist and he was diagnosed with anxiety.

In the summer I tried to enroll him in an art camp - but he ran around like a chicken with its head cut off and they kicked him out. In first grade he hid in the back of the room for the first few weeks. More shirt chewing, wouldn’t take off his coat, threw things, hit kids. At home he was capable of acting normal, but then every so often would act - well, psychotic. Mumbling to himself, overreacting to everything, screaming. Meals were hard, bedtimes were hard, getting dressed was hard. I had him evaluated and he was put on an IEP for behavior/emotional issues. More and more he was talking about death - wanting to die, wishing he was dead, saying that he hated himself.

Throughout all this time, I wondered, could it be the Singulair? I asked the doctor, the allergist, the psychiatrist - have you heard that this medicine could cause this? No, no, no- they all said after looking it up.

Finally, I looked on the web and found this site back in January, 2007. I read enough postings to recognize that other people were having similar issues. I told my doctor I was taking him off. She tried to get me to wait until after winter, but I didn’t. I just stocked up on pulmacort and albuterol and figured I would be ready with the nebulizer.

I watched my son carefully that first week, and it seemed like a cloud had lifted from him. He did not instantly change all of his troubling behavior, but as time passed it became less severe and more manageable. He became capable of things that he couldn’t have handled in the past. Almost immediately he learned to read. He had been almost reading for so long, but was so self-conscious about reading aloud to anyone. He took swimming lessons without a problem - it had been impossible to take him to any new class or camp where he didn’t know anyone before.

During this time, he also got lots of support at school and I enrolled him in group therapy. But I know that he would not have made as much progress as he has if I had kept him on the Singulair. Back at his worst he was like another child - haunted, crippled by intense anxiety and self-hatred. We wondered - what could be the cause - abuse? - but it just didn’t make sense - there were no other signs. I have an older son - who never went on Singulair - who has the sunniest disposition. Yes we have some history of mental illness in our family - but most people start showing signs either from birth or in their teens. My son was a happy baby, a friendly toddler, and all along, was very loving in his good moments to his close family members. Things just weren’t making sense. We were looking all over for an explanation. Now that we have it, even though we feel relief, we also feel tremendously sad.

I wonder - how many kids out there with crazy behavior are getting punished, are falling behind in school, are being institutionalized? I will be writing my senators, congressman, state and federal, as well as notifying the FDA.

This is what bothers me the most - all of us across the country go to our doctors and ask about these side effects. But (except for those who posted here) we don’t report the side effects, because everyone tells us they are not caused by the medicine. So our individual reports were never taken seriously because it never got past the doctor’s office.

I feel bad I didn’t post earlier, but I was intimidated, and almost embarrassed to “blame” my son’s behavior on the medicine, rather than taking responsibility for it as a parent. Thank you to all the parents who had the guts to post, and especially to the parents of Cody Miller who brought this to the public. I am so sorry for your loss - and I am so sorry for all the parents and children and teens and adult Singulair users who have suffered. I feel like we should form support groups because we have all been through a terrible trauma. I live in Massachusetts and would love to hear from those who live near me.

My son, who is now 12, has been taking singulair since he was in the first grade. He has always been emotional and we just figured that was his personality. A few years ago, I stopped his medication because his personality changed. He was extremely irritable and not happy. Once I stopped the medication he returned to his happy go lucky self. In November of 2007 I started him on the medication again after the doctor telling me it could not be Singulair that was causing his change in behavior. My son is an honor student, very active and has always liked school. In December he described having feelings in the morning at school and in speaking with his counselor, we thought he was having some type of social anxiety. He refused to go to school and he was grumpy and was crying very easily -something we had not experienced for several years. He was not himself and we blamed it on his maturing and the change from elementary to middle school. When I read the article about singular last week, I immediately took him off of Singulair without telling him anything. He went back to school on Monday and when he came home I asked him about the feelings he usually had every single day. He told me he did not have them that day. The next day I checked again and he did not have them again. He is also very calm and very much like his old self. There is a connection with Singulair and his problems. Singulair is probably a beneficial drug for many patients and many patients probably do not experience side effects, but it apparently can effect others severely. When prescribed, doctors should monitor children to make sure it is not having a negative effect and parents should be well informed by the doctor upon receiving a prescription of Singulair.

First, I would like to tell you what my daughter used to be like. My daughter used to laugh, smile, sparkle and she loved life! My daughter was smart, as her pediatrician had been telling us since she was one. She sailed through life! Then we had hurricane Isabell come through, and she was rushed to the hospital in the middle of that storm for our first asthma attack. She was three at the time. We took her to a Pulmonologist, which she has seen since. She is now 7 going on 8. She was put on Singulair about 4 years ago. Starting kindergarten was pretty much a breeze. First grade came and she complained of headaches, stomach problems, trouble concentrating. Telling me "mommy I can't think". I asked her Pulmonologist, 5 times that year if it were any of the asthma medications. I was assured it was not. now we are in second grade, and she has steadly declined in every aspect of her life. She started having "eye darting" and head movements, which she was unaware of over Christmas. Her teacher kept saying there is something wrong, "but I can't put my finger on it". She retreated from family and friends. Since December we have been through a slew of testing. The first was an EEG, next came an MRI and lastly an 24 hour EEG. All looking for seizure activity. She has seen a pediatric Opthamologist. She has been through testing for ADD....this being the last. She had a serious reaction to an ADD medication last week. When my daughter asked me "mommy, why did God make me this way", the tears just wanted to run. I had no answer. My husband and I both feel that it is NOT ADD! Let me add some facts here...she can not concentrate, she can not focus, she has withdrawn, she has started to have anxiety, she is weepy one minute, and agitated the next, she can not stay on task and finally her grades are dropping to the point of retention. My heart aches for her, I feel helpless. I want to see my girl back, I want her happy smiling face back, I want her to be confident again. I just pulled her off the Singulair last night, after my sister left many phone messages concerning this blog. I have read them with the love only a mother knows, and the pain for each and everyone of you going through this. As I sit here and type this, I can only have hope. This is very difficult to write, and I am not even sure if I have written it all down. What I do know, is that at 2:00 AM last night I took the time to report her side effects to the FDA. Today is a new day, and I hope and pray for my daughter and everyone of you out there dealing with this.

Terry A

WOW! I just came upon this site after hearing about the singulair warnings from my dad. I have an 8 year old daughter on singulair, zyrtec, and advair for asthma since she was 5. Thursday night we came back from a meeting with a psychologist for an educational evaluation (recommended by the school). She has had problems with concentration and learning at school since first grade (she started singulair just before entering 1st grade). Prior to that, there was never any issue, in fact she was tested as a very bright girl by a different psychologist (at age 4 for admission into private school). The current psychologist diagnosed her as ADHD-NOS and recommended medication and suggested a speech therapist for a minor speech problem. The ADHD-NOS is because she feels she has ADHD without all the hyperactivity or true attention problems (no "classic" ADHD symptoms). Since we were having her evaluated, we also mentioned her horrible mood changes and temper. She falls apart over little things and gets very angry with her siblings, yelling about how she hates her life and wishing she didn't have a younger brother. Along with this, we were having her evaluated by an ENT for her sleep problems (very restless sleep, falling asleep during the day when others don't- she already has had her tonsils and adenoids removed). My daughter also has a poor appetite (she used to complain on stomach pains). This was just not the same, happy, energetic child I had a few years ago.
The next morning, I called the pediatrician and told him that I wanted to take her off all the meds. I felt they were causing her all these problems and he agreed that they may be. We have decided to take it one step at a time. The pediatrician feels it may be all interrelated. I am so shocked to see the number of kids with the same problems! I wonder how many of these kids are being diagnosed as ADD/ADHD because of these meds? It never occurred to us that these meds could be causing her so many problems over the years. As parents, we assumed her problems were just because of sibling rivalry, a picky eater, boredom at school, etc. It all makes sense now. My husband is a cardiologist trained at Hopkins and Harvard and it never occured to him that these meds could do this to a child until Thursday night when we were told to give MORE meds to our daughter. Hopefully, we will see improvement in our child and that no long lasting damage has been done.

Our daughter has been on Singulair for four years that we can recall and are in the process of obtaining medical records to find out for sure.

She was diagnosed with A.D.H.D. when she was first starting school and allergies in the first grade. She was on liquid Claritan-D up until she started Singulair (4 or 5 Yrs ago).

Since she began taking the Singulair along with her A.D.H.D. meds. she has become very depressed, anxious, and sometimes extremely angry for no apparent reason.

Her elementary school career thus far has pretty much been a total waste because she does not pay attention or is outright defiant. And She has started stealing from other students.

We elected to try natural treatment for the A.D.H.D. with limited success and now we know why! The Singulair is counteracting the treatment! I would bet my last dollar that she will improve without the continued use of Singulair!

Before she started taking the Singulair she was always an outgoing kid that loved life unconditionally and now she is always down in the dumps and struggles through the school day and it is putting pressure on us as parents because the school gives her detention for not completing work or acting out in class etc.

She frequently complains of tummy aches and headaches or joint pain.

I feel really horrified as a parent because I argued with her just this morning and made her take the Singulair before school!

Even if taking her off this med. changes her future it won't erase the memories of her childhood school years that should have been some of the happiest times in her life and are now just painful ones she will try to forget!

We all need to find other parents in our own towns and get together a group and contact a lawyers office and file class action suits against the monsters who created this mess!

Our son started taking Singulair three years ago at age 4. Last year he started having really bad headaches and stomach aches. After taking him to the doctor, we thought he was having migraines and was lactose intolerant. He's always been a kind, gentle, well mannered child until this school year. He's in the first grade and has been starting fights, saying mean things to his classmates and hitting other children for no reason. He also has terrible nightmares that are very gruesome for a 7 year old. I've been wondering how in the world his little mind could come up with some of the horrible stuff he tells me he dreams. It scares him enough for him to come into our room and sleep with us. I'm so angry that we were never told of the serious side effects this medicine can cause. We're taking our baby off of this medicine immediately. I agree, we should all file a class action lawsuit - and I have the disciplinary reports from my sons school to prove how his behavior has changed. We're praying for all the children and families that have been victims of the greed of the drug companies once again. This is a shame.

my 7 year old son just started this med-18 mg per day. Does anyone have any forsight on what he may experience?