Loving boy symptoms and conditions

my 4 year old son was recently diagnosed with pneumonia, and because he has asthma, prednisone was part of his treatment plan. after just one dose of this drug, my son turned from well behaved, loving boy, to evil demon child. he was speaking with a very scary voice and telling his mother and i he wanted to kill us as he hit, kicked, spit, and threw things at us. he tried several times to hurt his little sister and said he wanted to see us all bleed. we were distraught. the stupid doctors said that he was experiencing a very rare side effect and was hallucinating. why didn't they tell us of this side effect beforehand? anyway, he did not stop acting in this way for almost 36 hours, from just one teaspoonful. needless to say, we will never administer this devil drug to our children again.

I have a 4yr old boy who has been on singulair for 5 months. Before he began singulair he was the most happy, kind, gentle, loving boy. We had an awesome close relationship. I enjoyed just sitting there watching him play. I could not wait for him to learn something new, but EVERYTHING has changed now. I took him off of singulair on Sept 19, 2008 after accidentally running into this site while looking up children and OCD. Thank God I did. It has been 12 days since I found this and took him off. I couldn't type then because I was to upset. My son who never had ANY mental problems or anxiety is now completely riddled with it. Instead of playing all day care free like 4yr old are supposed to do, my son spends his days now clinging to me in fear that I may leave or go into a room without him and he will not be there to open the door. He obsessively has to open every door now. He spends his days getting upset at the smallest things. He now gets mad at everything I say, or I don't say it right. Our relationship is not the same now, and I am devastated. Before Singulair he slept through the night every night. Now he wakes up every couple of hours to go to the bathroom and say "are you still there mom?" ok "I love you" "Don't let the bed bugs bite" I have to answer "I love you to" and "you either" If anything different is said he will go nuts, and he will obsessively say this over and over and over again. This is not my son. He is a totally different person. I am so very scared that this poison has permanently ruined him. I mean he is so young and his brain is developing. It has been developing with this poison in it, that has ruined him. It has been 12 days and he is still doing the same ocd stuff. He still seems really agitated. His muscles hurt, his tummy hurts, his eyes hurt, his ankles hurt, and he has diarrhea. My beautiful boy is now mentally and physically SICK because of singulair. I feel really bad to, because I did not know at first that the singulair was causing this and I was always getting on to him for his behavior and putting him in his room. At pre-school a couple of days after first giving singulair to him he started crying ALL DAY at school, and I made him stay there because I thought it was just because he had gotten a new teacher and he needed to get used to her. I feel terrible!! Does anyone know if the ocd will go away or has he now learned the behavior?

My son, who is 8, has just been prescribed Lexapro. He's only been on it for 2 weeks and is taking only 5mgs. He was diagnosed with depression. The first four days were wonderful. I had my sweet, loving boy back. Since then, a lot of "crap" we have been dealing with is back, but at least the sadness/aggression/temper have not been as bad as before. He is having horrible stomach pains, but could be caused by allergy drainage or possible intestinal problems that have yet to be diagnosed. Anybody out there with a child going through the same thing?

My son was also taking Singular for 8 months last fall and that was a NIGHTMARE! Don't ever allow your child to be prescribed this medicine, especially if they already have behavior issues.

My son, who just turned 14 this month, was on Singulair for over 2 years.
He was diagnosed with reactive airway disease and possibly Asthma--and prescribed this awful drug-even back in 2004. The doctor said how wonderful this med was and prevents any further attacks.. So, for 2 years-every night, he took this mood altering, destructive drug. He lost all interest in school, his athletics-soccer, skateboarding, biking..in fact became almost a vacant , very unhappy, child-had stomach aches, joint pains and reflux--why--I brought him to the doctor and Pediatric center so frequently--all they kept saying his --his asthma is better, much be other issues...Even after the March 2008 suicide--his doctor said-that is just an isolated incident-just monitor him--It is a good drug. Right, month by month his behavior escalated to wanting to die, no reason to go to school-he said he was stupid and a failure and why don't I understand there is no reason to his life. A usually happy fun-loving boy -my son- didn't want to live. Nothing made him happy-I started to believe what the doctors said--maybe something or someone at school (bully, pedophile??) caused this change. Terrible nightmares and vivid dreams...Until this past July, I asked him want to go to the library for some books or dvd's...he went ballistic-threw everything off his computer desk and tried to break his chair. He is not an aggressive boy but this behavior was becoming a daily issue. Along with everything flying off his table, was his bottle of Singulair pills. It then dawned on me..I have been poisoning my only son. The child I know and love and gave birth to returned within a few days--although I am worried sick about further asthma attacks --all the doctors can prescribe is a steroid drug-asthmex or Pulmicort.. I cannot understand nor comprehend why this drug is being prescribed for children and young adults. The guilt I live with is terrible as my son has lost 2 years of his life--
and thought there was something really wrong with him-At least we woke up---in time--how about some other parents..thinking it's just normal adolescent behavior for their child or their fault???

Posting my experience again.

You are not alone and your children are NOT hypochondriacs (something tells me small children don't even know what that means).

My 5 year old son was diagnosed with mild asthma and put on Singulair. Within a few months he began having uncontrollable fits of rage, displayed self-loathing behavior, had night terrors, and was inconsolable during these episodes. He became very destructive and was a danger to himself and our family. He even talked about killing himself and would say things like "I don't want to be in this life anymore" and "I want to kill myself". He would threaten my wife and his siblings and told them he wanted to kill them. It was a truly terrifying experience. Our pediatrician was clueless to these side affects and recommended we have our child go through a psychological evaluation. I knew this was not my child's normal behavior so I searched the internet for Singulair side effects and found some message boards where parents just like me were telling their stories of their children's aggressive behavior. I immediately took my son off the drug and within a couple weeks he was back to his normal self. He told us that he no longer has "that feeling inside of him". Five year old children don't even know what suicide is and to see my son talk like this was extremely frightening. He is a sweet, intelligent, loving boy who had never exhibited behavior like this until he went on Singulair. We have not seen this behavior after taking him off the drug. Please use your best judgment and connect the dots for yourselves.

READ THIS:
I'm posting this again for the sanity of the concerned parents on this board to let you know you're not alone:

My 5 year old son was diagnosed with mild asthma and put on Singulair. Within a few months he began having uncontrollable fits of rage, displayed self-loathing behavior, had night terrors, and was inconsolable during these episodes. He became very destructive and was a danger to himself and our family. He even talked about killing himself and would say things like "I don''t want to be in this life anymore" and "I want to kill myself". He would threaten my wife and his siblings and told them he wanted to kill them. It was a truly terrifying experience. Our pediatrician was clueless to these side affects and recommended we have our child go through a psychological evaluation. I knew this was not my child''s normal behavior so I searched the internet for Singulair side affects and found some message boards where parents just like myself were telling their stories of their children''s aggressive behavior. I immediately took my son off the drug and within a couple days he was back to his normal self. He told us that he no longer has "that feeling inside of him". Five year old children don''t even know what suicide is and to see my son talk like this was extremely frightening. He is a sweet, intelligent, loving boy who had never exhibited behavior like this until he went on Singulair. We have not seen this behavior after taking him off the drug.

My 5 year old son was diagnosed with mild asthma and put on Singulair. Within a few months he began having uncontrollable fits of rage, displayed self-loathing behavior, had night terrors, and was inconsolable during these episodes. He became very destructive and was a danger to himself and our family. He even talked about killing himself and would say things like "I don''t want to be in this life anymore" and "I want to kill myself". He would threaten my wife and his siblings and told them he wanted to kill them. It was a truly terrifying experience. Our pediatrician was clueless to these side affects and recommended we have our child go through a psychological evaluation. I knew this was not my child''s normal behavior so I searched the internet for Singulair side affects and found some message boards where parents just like myself were telling their stories of their children''s aggressive behavior. I immediately took my son off the drug and within a couple days he was back to his normal self. He told us that he no longer has "that feeling inside of him". Five year old children don''t even know what suicide is and to see my son talk like this was extremely frightening. He is a sweet, intelligent, loving boy who had never exhibited behavior like this until he went on Singulair. We have not seen this behavior after taking him off the drug.

I have recently brought my 9 year old son to a therapist. His emotional problems have seemed to come out of nowhere the past year. He was always a happy, loving boy who loved to talk to me and his dad but the past year we've seen a big change in him. He's very distant and very sad a lot but he can't tell us why, he seems to not know. He's up a lot at night with nightmares and has a lot of leg pain. We had no idea what to do with him and our concern has grown since he feels he wants to disappear. He actually gets sad enough to want to disappear - how can this be? He's only 9 years old! We saw the report on Singular last night and are mortified, our son started Singular last year and this is when we started seeing the change. I sat and cried last night after finding this website and reading what other parents have went through. We stopped the Singular and are hopeful that we'll get our son back. I will post again in a couple weeks to let you know if he gets better.

My six year old started Singular about two months back and I've noticed some major differences in his moods/attitude. He's normally a very happy, loving boy. I would have parents comment on how loving he is - they'd see him giving me hugs/kisses each morning at school when their kids would barely acknowledge their presence. My son would tell me he loved me 100 times a day and every night before bed he'd say - Good night, I love you, you're the best mama ever. A few days into taking Singulair that all stopped. He would say he wants to tell me he loves me but doesn't want to lie. OUCH. And the nightly routine stopped and he'd ask if he had to say it if he didn't mean it. After starting Singulair, if I ever needed to ask him for an opinion he'd say - well maybe, well no, well i don't care. Like what to eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. His favorite place is Joe's Crab Shack and he "didn't care if we ate there". The yes or no answers stopped. It seemed to be about getting through the day. And he went from being a well behaved little boy to getting in trouble several times a day even at school. The word I'd use to describe him the last couple of months is melancholy - basically no emotion one way or the other and while sitting he'd look really depressed. This is a boy that has a blast all the time. I have been wondering what is going on and wasn't sure what to do but when several of my friends have commented on the change in him - they always loved the fact he was such a sweetheart that I figured I'd try one thing at a time. I decided to take him off Singulair (since that was the most recent change and seemed to be when this all started) last Wednesday and have noticed a difference almost immediately. It's now Sunday. He's smiling more, more definate answers, he is giving more hugs, still distant a little but NOTHING like he has been. Curious to see how school goes this week. And I wonder if I'll ever get my boy back????