Happy child symptoms and conditions

I also have a child who has been on this drug for about a month and as I sit here and read these blogs the more I am remembering complaints made by my son. He has been getting into trouble at school lately, irritable, angry, sad, leg pains, stomach aches and also having trouble getting to sleep at night. I am an RN and it took me to glance at the pill bottle today to realize that I needed to do a little more research about this drug when I saw that it said "mood changes and depression". I feel horrible because after a great 2nd grade year I was disappointed that he was not behaving as well this year. I know know that the $60.00 wasted and tiring reprimanding was all a waste of my time! I owe my poor son an apology as I will be taking him off of this drug today! More information and advocacy needs to be available especially when core users are children who have little to no voice!!!

My wife and I recently took my daughter to an asthma specialist and she was prescribed Flovent and Singulair as everyday suppressive treatment. Our daughter is only 4 and the first evening of taking SIngulair she was exhibiting exaggerated emotional behaviors such as sadness and excessive crying (sad/moping). The following day the same emotional state was there without anger, but with abnormal crying (for my daughter). She went to preschool and her teacher said she was saying things such as, "I don't care", "I don't need anyone", "I hate this", etc. These are not normal behaviors for our typically happy child. Her doctor said suicidal thoughts and depression were possible side effects in adults, but I am beginning to think they apply to children as well. After only 4 days of Singulair we have decided to stop the treatment. I hope these comments help some of you other parents experiencing the same thing. -Rob

I just read an article dated 9/1/08 that stated that the American Lung Association just cleared Singulair as causing depression and suicide. They had researchers study the results from the original test trials because they are supposedly more accurate than after market reports. The article is at ******. I cried when I read this report. My now 8 year old daughter has been on this medication for mild asthma since she was 4. We have thought the stomach aches and tantrums were related to moving to a new town around the time she started taking singulair. But, 3 months ago, she all of a sudden started having depression, ocd about germs, afraid she might hurt herself and then depression and suicidal thoughts. She has been off meds for 8 weeks and still has some problems with thinking she wants to hurt herself and feeling down. She is normally very happy and our family is happy and normal, but dealing with this is difficult. How long does it take to get out of their system?

My daughter who just turn 7 has been on and off Zyrtec for the past 6 months. This last time it finally clicked... She was on it for about 3-4 weeks and I notice her mood changed and she was now very angry at anything and started hitting her sibblings and throwing things at me out of anger. She also was waking up at night either with bad dreams, or couldn't sleep. My husband and I realized that this all started about the time we put her back on Zyrtec. Two days ago, I took her off it and the next day she was an "Angel" compared to before. WOW what a difference. I did notice today (day two) she was sneezing more and didn't feel as well physically. So we are not out woods yet.

She also has been taking Singular for several years and I have been reading more about that medicine as well. I am not sure if needs to be taken off that yet, and will do an experiment. The timing isn't the best since school starts in just two weeks, but it might be worth it to have a happy child again.

On a side note, last year in school, they diagnosed her as having social anxiety. She is "extremely" shy and closed off in school. It would take her hours to do her homework which should have taken about 30 min. I am curious if stopping singular would help clear her head and make her less anxious. (She was on Zyrtec as well during that time).

This would be such an answer to prayer if it works. My two sons are so much happier than my daughter and I always wondered why. This may be the answer!

All these post's sound just like what my 10 yr old son is going through. My son has been on Singulair for the last yr and half for his allergies. His behavior changed dramatically shortly after taking this drug. Self hate, hurting himself, leg pains chronic cold symptoms severe insomnia. My doctor assured me that Singulair would not affect my sons behavior I strongly disagree with him and only 2 days ago did i take him off the drug. I pray he gets back to the normal happy child he once was. I feel so sick that I used to tuck him in to bed tell him that i love him and give him this pill that i feel was tormenting him.

Hi everyone! I am one of the moms who has been posting here after taking my son off of the singulair.. He is doing better every day! Someone at his school commented to me this morning about what a happy child he is (as he was giving the principal a big "Good morning!". I'm also posting the link for the support board that was created the other day. The link may not work when you click on it but you can copy and paste it. If you still have a problem you can email me at staceynlilphil@yahoo.com and I will send you an invite. All the research posts that are being posted will eventually have links to the posts so they can be easily found for future reference.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Singulair_side_effects_friends/

I can totally understand why patients and parents are so very frustrated in trying to get help. Doctors are trained in clinical medicine which means that they are trained to apply what researchers HAVE PROVEN to be of benefit to their patients. When researchers fail or pharmaceutical companies exploit research for profit making objectives, patients are ABUSED. I don't believe that we can blame our doctors. We have to point the finger elsewhere. When we find a problem, we can give contradictory information to our doctors and hope for the best. That is what I am trying to do for you.

I am an allergic person also.

Posted at 8:49 PM on Apr 06, 2008 by kristib, #29230

I took my son off singulair last week and immediately scheduled an appt with the allergist, also had well check with ped. scheduled. Both acted as though I had no reason to suspect singulair had any dangerous side effects. They acted almost as if I was foolish. I know that it had devastating effects on him and every day I am seeing my happy child reemerge.

I took my son off singulair last week and immediately scheduled an appt with the allergist, also had well check with ped. scheduled. Both acted as though I had no reason to suspect singulair had any dangerous side effects. They acted almost as if I was foolish. I know that it had devastating effects on him and every day I am seeing my happy child reemerge.

I'm just posting an update on my daughter tomorrow will be 1 week since she's been off of it and she's doing great! laughing,singing,playing with her sisters and happy again. It makes me really mad when people come in and say this is not true. How about you rewind my life back five years ago and live my life. With a child that acted like she was a demon filled with hatred and wanted everything in my world gone. Have the people forgotten how just a year ago our pet food was poisoned,our own food, our childrens toys, our drinking water, and now our medicines? We don't live in the kind of world we use to..where doctors use to listen to you and stayed in the examining room longer than just 5 or 10 minutes. How on earth can you really get a true diagnoses these days. All I know is that my daughter for the first time in 5 years is happy again and not destroying everything in sight. Never again will I put her on Singulair again so a big company and their share holders can make a huge profit for themselves.

Update: My daughter has been off Singulair for 3 months and is doing so much better. She is not having anymore nightmares, heart racing, anxiety attacks. No more itching, headaches, stomach pains, depression. She is so much happier now. She is 7 years old and acting like a happy child now. I am so glad that I took her off it in December. She is not crying and upset like she used to be. We could tell that she improved within one week and is still improving. Hope everyone else improves like my daughter has.

My six year old son has been taking Singulair for almost three years for asthma and allergies. We have had such a hard time with him and it all started around the time he was prescribed this drug. He became very irritable, angry, hard to satisfy and generally unhappy. Now that he is six, the last two years have been the absolute worst with him saying he hates himself and just wants to die. He has stomach pain all the time and has had alternating daily diarrhea for over a year. Our pediatrician has done all sorts of tests and has referred us to a specialist. He has bad dreams every night and also complains of leg pain. He has been so depressed lately that he does not even want to go out and play after school and on weekends (not like him at all) and the teacher calls me several times a week to pick him up early because of stomach pain. I am so upset to think all this has been caused by this drug and he has suffered because of it! He also takes Zyrtec, as do all three of my sons, but the older two do not have asthma, just allergies. I gave him his last dose night before last because I just found out about the Singulair investigation. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

My son, Dalton, is 7 years old and has been taking Singulair since a month before his second birthday. It has helped his asthma but for the last six months we have been seeing a change in him. He is very angry all the time. He says he can't help it and doesn't know what is wrong with him. He has crying spells and hits himself in the head and says he wants to die. He is always so angry and I could never figure out why. I can't believe what I am reading. I have sat here and read all the other comments about this drug and it sounds just like what my baby is going through. It makes me sick to know that they give our children medicine that can cause all of this pain. I heard about this last night and I stopped giving him the medicine. Hopefully we get our son back to normal and he starts to be a happy child like he was before.

Praise the Lord! It is about time. When I read this in the paper yesterday I could believe it. I have been waiting for this to happen for two years now when i decided to take my daughter off this junk. I have told every single person i know what this stuff did to my sweet little baby whom is now 9. She too experienced nightmares, mood swings, anxiety, night sweats, stomach aches, headaches, constipation, urinary problems, leg pains, aggression. She has always been a normal kid for her age. She had always been in dance classes since she was 3 and loved it. Never ever had she been into trouble at school or dance but when she got on this stuff her teacher was calling me at least once a week about her being rude and very forgetful about everything. Her dance teacher told me she looked like she was spaced out all the time. And not listening. I noticed she was having panic attacks in the stores when we would be shopping. She cried and told me"MOMMY I DO NOT KNOW WHY I AM ACTING SO MEAN? I HATE MYSELF. I DO NOT WANT TO BE ME." i cried too and we started praying about it. I posted on this site 2 yrs. ago when i decided to take her off against her ped. advice. She actually got mad at me when she tried to put my younger daughter on it when she was 3. I told her no i was not going to give it to her nor was i giving it to my older daughter any more. She looked at me like i was crazy. And said my girls needed it. I told her i did not like what it did to my older daughter. We do not go to her any longer. It took a couple weeks and my daughter started acting like her old self. I do think it messed her mind up though. Singular is evil and should be off the market. It makes me sick to think back on what it did to my daughter. It was a complete nightmare!

My child started Singulair when he was seven and has been on it for 1 1/2 years. He has since had to go on anti-depressants and weekly visits with behavioral pediatrician. It has been so painful to hear my once very happy child saying, "I wish I were never born, why did you have to have me?" I have received calls from the guidance counselor asking about his anger problems and I really had no reason as to why he had become this way. I blamed it perhaps on the difficult time he has had sleeping, 3 or more hours to fall asleep. It is all coming together now. How tragic that my child has suffered this way and his asthma treatment was to blame.

I've been blown away also. My son is 10 years old and was originally diagnosed with RAD (Reactive Airway Disease) when he was about 3 and has had allergy and mild asthma issues since. When he was 5 he was put on Singulair, Nasonex, and Zyrtec. My son has always been a beautifully happy child, but the last few years have been extremely emotional for him. He gets depressed, he's extremely hard on himself and is ultra-sensitive and scared about everything. He has never been frightened and was a baby that loved his room and always slept really well. Now I think that I understand why he’s been afraid to sleep in his room alone. Ever since he's been on Singulair he complains and complains of bad dreams. I can't believe that I'm hearing that he's been taking this medication like clock-work for 5 years and all of his problems may be related to this. His allergies are not severe and nor has his asthma ever been - but I was told constantly that he needs this medication. This is unbelievable - I've stopped giving Singulair to him and have made an appointment with a new allergist.

I have been crying for almost 24 hours now. I cannot believe what I am reading and hearing about Singulair. My son has been to hell and back again and again. I cannot say for sure the Singulair is the culprit. But after reading all of the other stories on this website, I am convinced it is a strong possibility.

My son is 11 years old. He has severe allergies and asthma. He takes many, many medications for this including Singulair. He as been on Singulair for about 8 years now (my best guess because he has been on it for sooooo long.)

My son was diagnosed with ADHD in pre-school. He has taken many medications for the ADHD, but none have ever done any good at all. We thought some of the medications even made things worse. Now, I'm not so sure.

After exhausting all the ADHD medications, our pediatrician sent my son to a psychiatrist and a counselor. The psychiatrist put him on 2 different antipsychotic medications. Again, neither one did any good and seemed to make matters worse. The psychiatrist sent my son to a psychologist to be tested for Asperger's. For those of you who don't know Asperger's is a high functioning form of autism. The psychologist ruled out Asperger's by diagnosed ADHD and Anxiety Disorder. He did not prescribe any medication.

For some unknown reason, I've only given my son the Singulair off and on for the last year. My son had the best year in school ever. However, his pediatrician was still not satisfied. He sent him to see another psychiatrist at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. We were told he is believed to have more than one disability. He is believed to have ADHD, Aspergers, Teurettes and a possible 4th medical problem that has not yet come to light.

We are scheduled to see a neurologist at Children's Hospital on the 15th of April to rule out any medical reasons for his tics. We see the psychiatrist again on the 18th of April.

I am so tormented by this recent news. Has all of these problems been caused from him taking the Singulair for so long? Although he has had his best year in school yet, he still has a lot of problems. Are the side effects of the Singulair permanent.

The other side of the coin is this: It is also very scary to watch my son not be able to breath. Asthma can also be life threatening. What is a parent supposed to do.

Also, I now don't know whether to keep these appointments that are coming up. I hate so much to put him through more. He has endured enough doctors and tests to last him a lifetime. However, what if it is not the Singulair and there is help out there for him that I am not aware of.

Please if anyone else has had a similar experiences e-mail me. I would love to hear from you.

God Bless everyone who has been through this kind of hell.

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!

I too am in shock as well as relived about the news on singulair. Last night my 15 year old son called me (he's at the beach on spring break w/ friends), first he said Mom don't be mad but I haven't been taking my singulair and I feel better he then proceeded to tell me what he saw on the news about singulair and he was not ever taking it again. My son has been on singulair for the past year and as I write this I want to cry thinking of how I have treated him the past year because he went from a loving happy child to a tired, moody, grades falling, bouts of anger where he would tell me to just leave him alone he didn't care anymore about school or anything. He would stay awake at night and I couldn't get him up in the morning. Over the past 8 months I've had him at the Dr.s office trying to tell them something was wrong with. He shouldn't be so tired, angry, falling asleep in class. He was tested 3 times for mono with neg. results and I was told it was his age. Last month at my wits end I took him to the Dr. and demanded a complete blood work up because either something was very wrong with him or maybe he did developer teen add or emotional problems. The doctors diagnosis: depression and fluctuating hormones of a teenager. I'm furious at myself for all those nights trying to understand why he could pay attention in class, wouldn't remember his homework, getting angry when I would tell him theres no way you can be that tired all the time, telling me he hated fighting with me over school,and just wished he could quit school altogether. He even lost interest in his favorite sport and would get so frustrated at how he felt he would cry at night say he was sorry he didn't know why he felt so mad inside and I would try to understand but not know what to do.
I asked his Dr.s on several occasions if singulair could cause him to feel like this and every time they told me no and blamed on his age and being depressed about school. He will not be taking singulair again!.

My daughter who is 8 has been taking singulair for about 3 years. Her behavior has changed so much and the doctors said it was normal kid things......
She went from a sweet child to one who seems to have these horrible mood swings which cause her to lash out and say mean things, nobody loves her, she wants to run away, she hates me. She gets so angry and slams doors and acts like a child having a tantrum. She has had stomach problems which we went to doctors/specialists for a year......stomach aches at night/sometimes 24 hours a day. She has nightmares and wants me to sleep with her. She does not want to open her curtains because she thinks monsters will come in the windows. She has bad OCD related to germs. She now wants me to go with her when she plays at a neighbors house, she seems to want to know I am close by.
She is very independent and to start this clingy behavior this past year is not normal.
A relative is a doctor and thought my daughter has a touch of ADH but she is honor roll and very well behaved in school so maybe my relative is noticing anxiety in her. I need to call the doctor today and take her off this. I don't know if there is another medication to put her on or if she should be on it. She takes qvar and abuterol inhaler along with claritin D.
I just feel sick reading all these horror stories. I was being told her behavior is normal tantrums to get our attention. Now I know none of this is true.

Daughter was sick for 6 weeks with what started as a virus . Dr.'s said virus needed to run it's course and allergies were also bad so they put her on Singulair. When she wasn't improving they said she had mono. No improvement, still mono. Still not improving, more specific test, not mono. Dr's chalked it up as she had a virus and was now just depressed from being down for so long. Well when you have mono u r told not do anything and only rest. After weeks of doing this she was depressed and weak. Then we were told that the diagnosis was wrong and we were had been trying to nurse the wrong sickness. Dr's said to send her back to school. By that time our daughter was so far gone it wasn't possible. Every time we left the house she would scream and panic. Experiencing exhaustion and not her self (She loves school & was always a very happy child) I knew there had to be something wrong with her. They sent her to the hospital lab twice and found nothing. Still trying to say she is only depressed but now being rude about by saying that we were just giving her, her way. My husband & I decided that the Dr.'s were not doing there part and trying to get to the bottom of her illness. So we began looking at what had been different in her life over this period of time (5 weeks).The only thing that had changed in her life other than her catching a virus was that she was put on Singulair. We had enough common sense to know that some people may have a reaction to some medicines that others won't. And just because not every Dr. has experienced this doesn't mean it can't happen.We read the pamphlet and all of the side effects. Even the rare ones she was experiencing. Shaking that looked like seizures, body aches, numbness in fingers and toes, extreme fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, irrational behavior, anxiety, paranoia, coughing, depressed, swelling of the lips, hallucinations, blurred vision,screaming every time she left the house, and complaining of constant pain. We felt like that had to be what it was. So we researched it and found on medications.com story after story of children who had gone through the same thing that she was experiencing. Dr was very rude and said she had never heard of that before and just send her back to school. So my husband ad I made the decision to take her off the med. The day before we rushed her to the hospital was her last day on the Singulair. That turning point was the seizure like shaking,hallucinations, saying that she couldn't hardly see us.That night in the ER they ran a CT Scan and found nothing. They admitted her in the pediatrics unit and we began a week that felt much like a month. They started her on an IV. They called in different Dr's...resident Dr's, pediatricians, etc. Everyone said our theory on the Singulair was possible but since they had never personally experienced a case of that they just weren't sure.When no one could figure out what was wrong they then called in a neurologist. He was very concerned and immediately started assessing her and ordering blood work and tests. She had an MRI and an EEG. All came back normal. He listened to our theory and said it was possible but to be sure he wanted to test for for everything else to make sure nothing was being missed. She had lost 5 lbs before her hospital stay and not sure how much more after that but while in the hospital when I bathed her, it was so sad to see her stomach all shrunken in. They put her on 5 different medicines while in the hospital that we were so upset and torn because then we felt like she was being drugged. They had her on an IV the whole week she was there and hooked up to monitors.She had a couple of really bad episodes while she was there where she felt like she couldn't breath, couldn't stop shaking and then she lost her speech which scared us to death. They ended up sedating her to calm her down. That one episode was on a Wednesday and then Thursday they gave her another medicine and it looked like she was having a bad reaction to it....her eyes were open but she couldn't move her body. We were freaking out thinking something was wrong. I ended up crashing and had to be carried away. All the result of everything going on of course.Everyone on the staff was very frustrated at not being able to help her. We felt like we were loosing our baby.We continued slowly getting through the end of the week and weekend dealing with all the symptoms still. Dr came to the conclusion that he felt she had got a bad virus. Although, he never dismissed the fact that it could be the Singulair but said unfortunately there was no test to look for that. He said parents usually know their kids better than anyone though.Dr. said when she was released she would have to go to inpatient rehab because of the anxiety issues and because she had not walked for so long (4-5 weeks).Dr came in Monday morning and said if she did not start drinking more she was about 2 days away from a feeding tube. During the day she started drinking more and when he came back in that night he said she had drank enough and he took her off the IV and said she could go home and we could do outpatient rehab. We were so happy to take her home even though we knew it would be hard. So the next day, Tuesday, was very hard and we had very serious episodes with not talking, loss of hearing, shaking, still not walking and passing out. We called the Dr. at the hospital and they said it was all due to the anxiety. We were praying over her so hard. Well Wednesday she woke up and said she had no more pain, she was hungry, and she started walking again. We got our baby back! And there is no doubt in our mind that it was that Singulair. We know that it was. From the time we took her off of Singular to the time she was totally restored was 9 days. It happened just like the all the other parents had described. As soon as it was out of her system she all of a sudden came back to us. We decided to not take her back to those pediatricians. I recently took her for a follow up with her Allergist,who was not aware of what had happened and after hearing the story said that he had experienced two of his patients being allergic to Singulair and they had hallucinations. They were pulled off the medicine immediately so their cases were not as extreme as hers. Please be cautious! This was a devastating experience! Please feel free to email us. I have documented our whole story if you would like it emailed to you.

just an fyi for all you moms out there. my 6 year old son was on zyrtec for 2 weeks and went from a super happy child to an emotional train wreck. we were given a prescription for singulair today, but wanted to check side effects before filling it. we definitely won't be filling it. i just wanted to warn everyone who goes off singulair not to get on zyrtec!!

My daughter is 5 years old and has been on singulair for 1 week. i have already noticed a dramatic change in her behavior. she has become irritable, mean, nasty, and emotional. she has had me in tears on a daily basis. she has turned into a monster. we will be calling the doctor in the morning!

BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS CAUSED BY SINGULAIR.

Our 7-year old daughter has been taking Zyrtec, as needed, for her allergies since the spring of 2005 without side effects. That summer, our allergist recommended she add Singulair. She took it for a short while w/o noticible side effects that we can remember. This spring our doctor prescribed it for her again, along with Zyrtec. We gave her the medicine regularly, not expecting side effects as she has done well with other medicines.

Normally, our daugher is a very happy child. Friends often comment on her ready smile and good disposition. This spring, however, she exhibited uncontrollable anger spells about very small things. She would become upset about something small, and then her anger would build, causing a temper tantrum which lasted hours. As parents, we were very concerned and disturbed by her behavior. We were about to seek professional counseling because we tried many different ways to help her without success. Around this time (late spring), a friend told me about a child she knew who experienced behavior problems while taking Singulair. My husband did a quick Internet search, finding many other similar personal testimonies. As a test, we immediately took her off the medicine, especially because we weren't convinced that it helped with her allergies anyway. After a few weeks passed, our daughter's behavior changed dramatically. She has not had one temper tantrum in three months! My husband and I felt like we got our happy, little girl back! We are absolutley convinced that Singulair caused her behavior problems. If your child or you are taking Singulair and feeling/behaving abnormal, please consider finding an alternative medication. I am sure Singulair doesn't affect all people in this way, but Merck needs to recognize this side effect! Today, I tried to inform them by email about our problems, but their website referred me to my physician (who already knows). Why don't they want direct feedback from their consumers???

My 5 year old son was put on Singulair in October. He was having asthma problems after a hurricane hit our area. He was fine through Christmas but then I started to notice that my happy little boy was now very sad almost all the time. He started crying in school, he had only cried at school once before when he was stung by a bee. The change in his behavior was so major that his teacher was concerned about him. At school he would start crying if anything got on his paper. When he's at home he doesn't sleep though the night at all anymore. His legs are constantly moving and he has nightmares. I have taken him off Singulair and in the past week he seems more like my happy child. We have had to use our puffer but atleast he is able have a normal day now.

My 12mo old daughter began taking Omnicef two days ago for a urinary tract infection. She's normally a very happy child who takes about 4oz of milk and then crashes for the night. Both nights since starting Omnicef she has been extremely restless and doesn't want to sleep. When you hold her she wants down, when you put her down she wants you to pick her up and cries constantly. The only way to get her to sleep is to take a ride in the car....and then pray she doesn't wake up when we're bringing her back into the house. The red-ish colored stool happened after the first dose as well. She had one when she woke up the next morning and another a few hours later. These were the worst diapers I've ever seen. We're stopping the doses and consulting her pediatrician. Hope this helps.