Ped symptoms and conditions

I discovered my son's side effects from singulair a little over 2 years ago. He had used Singulair for approx 3 years. I did not recognize that he was suffering side effects until his ped increased his dosage to 5mg. At that point, it was loud and clear. I discontinued the Singulair in March 2007. The most significant improvements happen after approx 3 weeks. He was like a different child. Even after the 3 weeks, it seemed like he continued to improve a little every day.

I can tell you from our experience that my son suffered many, many side effects that i did not recognize. He had nightmares, anxiety, fear, frustration, leg pains, stomach pains, dark circles under his eyes, poor appetite, quick to tears and restlessness...just to name a few. On the higher dosage, he began to have a facial tic, dilated pupils and hallucinations.

I am thankful everyday for this website and some higher power that helped me realize what was going on and get him off Singulair. The first week off Singulair, he slept like an angel. No night terrors, no thrashing in his sleep. Week 2, he continued to improve in so many ways. It was nothing short of amazing. Week 3, he began to realize the changes in himself. Fears were a HUGE side effect for him. During week 3, the fears, ALL of them disappeared. He never spoke of them again. It was very strange and truly amazing.

I don't want to tell you to stop the use of Singulair. Only you know your child's health status. I will tell you that stopping Singulair changed our lives and saved my son. He suffered the assault of Singulair for 3 long years. Good luck to you all and your families. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

I already had experienced some bad side effects due to singulair with my daughter. She had become moody, emotional, having nightmares and those are just a few to mention. However, my son had no side effects. When I went to my children's pediatrician, she agreed some children do experience some side effects like my daughter was having. But somehow she didn't see it as quite a concern. I vowed then and there to take both my children off it. Then my son continued having his allergies and over the counter zyrtec didn't seem to help him. I went back to the dr. and because I trust her and have known her for many years....she convinced my to put him back on singulair since he had never had any previous side effects. Well, its been maybe 2 months and now I see my son acting strange. He is not himself. The normal activities he used to enjoy don't interest him anymore. For the last few days, he has been wanting to lay down and he says he's sleepy. To me, he is acting like someone who is depressed and he's only 5!!!!!! I am taking him back to the dr. and taking him off this horrible drug! For all you parents out there...I think we should all go with our "motherly" instincts and do what we think is best for our children. We are the ones that know our children on a day to day basis..not the doctor's. So I am kicking myself for not sticking to my original instincts. My daughter improved drastically! Even her teacher noticed a difference. Please if you notice something, take action before the drug does more damage.

I wish I had found this site a year ago. My 9 year old son was prescribed Zyrtec for his nasal allergies. He took it each day for over 6 months. He began to have problems in school - withdrawing from class participation, moody behavior at home, depression, lethargy, anxiety, worry, feelings of despair, told me that he would be better off dead! I started to panic but never associated the Zyrtec with his mental state. Took him to a counselor who said that he seemed like a normal, well-adjusted little boy who was sensitive. Realized that the Zyrtec was not really fully controlling his nasal allergies so decided to stop taking it for a while. Not much change in the allergies but the emotional change was amazing! I had my little boy back in only a few days after stopping the Zyrtec. First thing I noticed was that he was no longer mopey and lethargic and wondered if the Zyrtec had been making him tired. Then when the rest of his emotional issues disappeared magically I began to suspect the Zyrtec but the ped. dismissed my fears. A few months later he began to have bad allergies again so again tried an anithistimine for him. Zombie-like state returned right away. For some reason he is hyper-sensitive to all anithistimines and we avoid them all with him. What I learned from this is that doctors are not open to admitting that these drugs they so casually prescribe have serious side-effects.

My son is 3 and has been on Singulair since around springtime (I think... I've lost count). Anyway, during this summer we noticed his behavior had just gone straight to hell. At first I was attributing it to the wonderful world of the three year old, but it was just getting ridiculous. He was having countless meltdowns, screaming bloody murder (I mean SCREAMING to the point of going hoarse), hitting, punching, slamming, banging, crying hysterically for ridiculous reasons, yelling out during the night, and showing OCD behaviors. I was fearing that he might have ADHD/OCD until my husband stumbled upon this website. I remember hearing stories about teenagers having horrible side effects from singulair, but didn't think it was affecting my son at 3. As I read the entries on this website I felt like they were talking about my son.

I am taking him off of it to see what happens, but now I'm nervous that his asthma will flare. He's had quite a few asthma episodes since the fall allergy season has started. I suppose he'll need to go for awhile to get everything out of his system to see if the behavior changes, and then I hope to find a new preventative. We have Pulmicort and Xopenex and an inhaler ready!

*UPDATE* Well, it hasn't quite been two weeks since I've taken James off of Singulair and - I am not kidding you - his behavior improved the FIRST day. I want anyone who reads this to know that I am not an "alarmist", I DON'T freak out over everything I read, I do a lot of research (kind of obsessive myself :), so please understand that I am not one to usually write things like this...I mean, I pushed my allergist to give it to him in the first place! There are plenty of kids out there that are fine on Singulair, but some are not. I didn't make the connection to the Singulair since the average three year old is irrational and unpredictable anyway, but I KNEW something wasn't right. It wasn't just tantrums and whatever, his overall personality had done a 180. In the last two weeks my son has returned. He still, of course, has three year old moments, but he is back to the caring, loving, curious, excited, social, happy kid I had last year. One of the worst things we were seeing two weeks ago was bedtime behavior. BAD OCD behaviors - everything in his room had to be PERFECT. The curtains couldn't have a peek of light shining through, there could be nothing on the floor, everything had to be in order. He would obsess about things (creatures) coming into his room, when we would say goodnight and close the door he would scream and cry like someone was stabbing him and was petrified. The FIRST night that we stopped the Singulair he laid his head on his pillow, said goodnight and went to sleep. Please keep an eye out for personality changes in your kids.
*November update* it's been almost two months since we took James off Singulair and we haven't seen ONE BIT of the horrible behavior that we had w/ the Singulair! Normal "three-year-old moments", but no return of the "devil child", no OCD, nighttime freak-outs, violence, or any of it.

Oh my gosh. I am on this website because I googled "behavior issues with Singulair" Both of my children are on Singulair. One from as young as 5 months old. Both Pulmonologist, allergist and Internal med Ped. insisted that it was a safe drug. They aren't living with it. My 7 year old has taken it consistently for 5 years and recently upped is having behavior, aggression, insomnia and constant reports back from the teacher on his behavior. We had him psychologically evaluated and they found nothing uncommon to his age. All his issues are described in almost everyone of these side effect threads. I am just afraid to take him off and feel the blame if something serious happens. I am calling tomorrow for possible alternatives.

Have been experiencing the same serious behavioral issues (screaming, launching every toy he has out of his room, knocking over his night stand, hitting, kicking and just being hateful) with my 4 year old who has been on Singulair for 2 years as I'm noticing many of you have here. My wife and I have a wonderful relationship and happy home and tons of love and support from other family that's close buy so the kid has a very nice environment. We have taken him off the medication as of yesterday. I have consulted his doctor but I'm anxious to hear what methods of treatment for the asthma all of have chosen in replacement of Singulair or did you just maintain with an inhaled maintenance program with something like Pulmicort? Also, how long was after taking your child off of Singulair did take to for the outburst to subside and the behavior to become more mellow and normal (what is normal for a 4 year old?). Any info would be greatly appreciated.

In response to Wewe's post, I've been wondering the same thing. Since taking my daughter off Singular almost 2 months ago, I'm seeing a different almost typical kid. Four years ago about 2 months after starting Singular my daughter was diagnosed with anxiety. As her condition got worse she was diagnosed with depression. We started to see OCD and tics so they were added as a diagnosis It was determined that it was related to strep infections so she was diagnosed with PANDAS. She was started on Zoloft and klonidine. The Zoloft made her worse. Her fears of hurting herself got so intrusive she was hospitalized. Her cholesterol was high too. The Zoloft was discontinued and Prozac was started. She's had therapy all 4 years. She also neede physical therapy due to muscle and joint pain. Now she's doing better, off Singular. Does she really have PANDAS, OCD? I don't know. She's still on Prozac, we just did a slight decrease this week. Is this medication the trigger for underlying conditions. Learned behaviors can be unlearned, but are there lasting physical effects? If a gene has been turned on, can it be turned off? I wish we knew the answers to help all of our kids.

Well, we just got out of the ENT and he couldn't believe that his ped put him on Singulair. He said he didn't like it, it wasn't a good drug, and hadn't heard of many good things about it. He also told me to take my son off immediately, to bad I already had. He also wanted me to put him back on Zyrtec but only when needed, not every day like he had been taking it. Told him about how the neb. had been talked about so he listened to my little one's lungs and he said that they are all clear and there is no need for one. While I was in this appointment, his ped. called. She said that she had never heard of any side effects with this and she wanted him to stay on it for a week to see if it worked or not. Sorry we aren't doing that, we had four doses of it and that is more than enough to say we aren't staying with it. This is just his first full day off the med and I shouldn't get all worked up but while in the waiting room to see the ENT we had two huge fits and even hit his head on one of the chairs because he didn't get his way. The ENT said to give him about a week to go threw "detox" and get it out of his system and then he should be back to himself.

Also, on top of the big mood changes and swings we didn't sleep good last night and had another fit of rage in the waiting room of the ENT. Not fun at all.

My 15 month old son was just put on this Friday, four days ago. He had been on Zyrtec since he was five months old and his allergies had recently gotten worse along with a percistant cough. As the weekend went on he became more and more angry and fidgety. Sunday afternoon, after his nap he came running down the hall screaming and crying (this nap is usually 1 1/2 hours long and he had only been asleep for 30 to 45 minutes when this happened). He was very upset for about 20 minutes. He is normally a very happy, fun loving child. Later that afternoon he didn't get his way and took it out on me. He began to kick and scream(at the top of his lungs) , throwing his head back, and then hitting me. Everyone that was with us have been around him from day one and they all said how he wasn't himself and had never seen him act this way. Now, this morning on our drive into town to go to daycare he normally is talking the whole way (45 minutes) but this morning he was just staring off out the window and didn't want to talk or "have a conversation" with me. I knew something wasn't right and had already had it in my head he wasn't getting another dose of this. I found this site and some of the little things began to jump out at me and I know for sure we aren't going to take this again. I just hope and pray that this hasn't caused any lasting side effects, again he has only been on it for 4 days. After reading all of this I have called the daycare to check and the doctor, who hasn't called me back yet. Going to see his ENT tomorrow and we will be having a long conversation about it all. His ped. is the doctor who put him on it. She is trying to try everything before he is put on a nebulizer.

Another side effect named on the Singulair web site is ear infections. This med. should have never been given to my son who has already had one round of tubes because of ear infections. The tubes have already fallen out and within a week he had an ear infection.

WOW!!! I am glad I came across this website. I have twin boys that will be 7 this month. One has been on Singulair for about 3 years for allergy induced asthma and my other son has been on it for 9 months for allergies. I am taking them both off of it today. The son that is taking the medicine for 3 years has become increasingly angry and gets upset over small things. Over Memorial weekend, he lost a game he was playing on the wii and exploded. He was banging his head and then started to hit me. NEVER in my life have I seen him attack anyone. A few days later he threw rocks at his friend because he wanted the wagon. Over the past 3 years I have noticed some change in him and just took it as growing pains. He has always been a strong will child. However, over the past 3 years he has gotten worse and since he has physically attacked me and his friend, I have decided to send him to counseling. Now I firmly believe it is the Singulair.

My other son has been on it since August. He started to have anxiety within a month of taking it. His behavior has been stressed, depressed and not wanting to play with other kids. He was biting his nails to a nub, licking his hands, not talking to anyone at school and rubbing his head. I have also noticed he does like to look at the person he is talking too. Of course I thought the worse and thought he was being molested. I went to his Teacher and she has worked very hard with him, but he is still a loner. If you knew him before, he played with everyone and enjoyed life. I was told by his Ped. that he had anxiety and to have him see a shrink.

I am hoping that after taking them both off this medicine, I will see improvement.

My daughter, just turned 3, was put on Singulair this past January for allergies. She had chronic runny nose, sinusitis, coughing, often leading to infections. The allergist put her on Singulair combined with Hydroxyzine every night. Now that I have read these postings, I recall that we had one really disturbing episode with her, although I can't now recall exactly how long after starting the drugs. Like some others have described, she woke in the night, seemingly terrified and at the same time in extreme pain. We could not find any way to soothe her or relieve her pain - she simply fought and flipped around, alternately reaching for us and kicking us away while screaming and crying and writhing on the bed. After a time, maybe half an hour, it seemed to just pass and she finally went back to sleep. But then we endured a couple of months of repeated wakings at night, sometimes when she was restless for an hour or more, sometimes upset. She might wake 3, 4, or 5 times in one night.

Lately I have become concerned about her increasingly aggressive behavior towards us, but recently towards others. And I am also very concerned about her physical growth. She is 41" and over 40 pounds and turned 3 a week ago. I am now buying her size 5T clothes. I have finally gotten proactive (why did I wait??!) and consulted with her ped., who has agreed that we should screen her for anything we can. My daughter has been diagnosed with developmental delays (pre-Singulair) and is in a preschool with similar kids. We have been dealing with behavior issues for the last year, and I am astounded that an allergist would put her on Singulair with the current controversy about it's side effects. I took her off it immediately as soon as I found out there were negative reports - thankfully our experience has not been as extreme as many others. But I feel ill at what could have happened! I am now praying that she has not suffered any irreversible damage...

Bless all of you in your struggles.

My nephew is 7 and has been on Singulair for probably 4 years. His symptoms developed over time but recently have exploded. He has epilepsy so most of the things that he has experienced has been blamed on that. However, today his doctor took him off singulair and said he believes his symptoms are caused from the drug. He started having head drop seizures, fell out of his desk and cut his face one day. He has also been depressed, had severe anxiety attacks for the past 8 months. Several months ago, he started having such severe nightmares that it is almost impossible to get him to go to bed and go to sleep. Recently he began "seeing dead people" and "monsters" that we trying to kill him even when he was awake. He has also cried many nights with leg cramps and severe stomach pain. I will update this page in two - three weeks to let you know if these problems go away now that we have stopped the singulair.

Hi, I am a mother of 6. They are 11,9,7,4,and twins 2 1/2. So nothing surprises me as far as kids. I have been through it all. My 7 year old had been taking singulair for allergies and ear pain, for over a year. Did my doctor once ask me about any of the side effect, NO!! This is not ok. My son suffered, decrease appetite, weakness, fatigue, mood swings, irritability, fears of being alone, scary dreams, anger, bone and joint pains. Before he was a loving kid (who had his moments)!!! I had no idea the singulair was causing all these destructive side effects. I just thought this is a phase he is going through, he will soon get over it. Finally I took him to his ped. and we did blood work and x rays. I told her something was wrong with him, he has not been himself over the past 6-8 months. This is one reason why I never suspected his singulair, it did not show up immediately. All of his test came back fine. I just happened to look at the side effects of this medicine. I almost died!!! Every single thing that this poor child has suffered from was on this list. Then more, I found this page and other mothers have had the same experience. I was just amazed that this has happened to so many. I was relieved that my son was normal. He has been off singulair for 6 days now (he doesn't know why I took him off it) . But you would not believe the change. It is AMAZING!!! In only 3 days, I started to see change in his anger. You would not ever in a life time believe that a medication can do this. I have been poisoning my son for a year. I think that Merck should take some of that 4.3 BILLION dollars and do some better research!!!! Concerned citizen you are right on. I have read many pages of this forum and I think you are doing a good job researching this. Maybe Merck should hire you as one of there "experienced personal". It just makes me seriously sick to see that the medical field is not seeing this problem!!!

I am updating as my almost 7 year old son has been off Singulair for a little over a week now. He seemed to actually go through a "withdrawal" period for about 2-3 days. He was very emotional with his moods swinging wildly, giggling uncontrollably one minute, and then crying at the drop of a hat. Thank goodness we did this over a weekend so his teachers didn't have to deal with this! His stomach aches continue, but they don't seem to have the intensity they did before and this morning he even said to me that his stomach hurt and he was trying to figure out if he was just hungry or had an actual tummy ache. I gave him a small breakfast and he said, "Yup, I was just hungry, it's gone now." Before, he couldn't ever tell if it was a real stomach ache or if he was hungry. His stomach just always hurt. He did have two nights in a row (the first two nights w/o Singulair) with really BAD nightmares--even came into our room crying both nights. Since then, he hasn't woken once during the night. My husband and I can't remember the last time we went a whole week without our son ending up in our bed!! No complaints of headaches, leg pains, no sinus infections, etc. So far, I would say that he is getting better--the side effects, at least. Because our son is severely asthmatic however, we do take peak flow measurements 3x every day. Since going off Singulair, his peak flow hasn't been as good. Not terrible, but not as good.

Interestingly, I spoke with both our pediatric pulmonologist and our pediatrician's office. Our pulmonologist was very supportive in going off the medication as long as he had other controller meds (which he does). Our regular doctor's office has two pediatricians, one was very interested in what our pulmonologist had to say, what our son's side effects were, and was supportive of our pulmonologist's decision, etc. (She's the one we always see.) The nurse told me that the other ped. was not recommending that ANY of her patients stop taking Singulair. The ignorance of some doctors--lesson learned for me. Never see that pediatrician!!

The tough decision for us will be what to do if our son's asthma gets worse with recurrent pneumonia and hospitalizations for URI's returning. We are hoping that doesn't happen and that we can find other ways to help control his asthma! I still feel that Singulair was the most effective in controlling his asthma--just don't think we can put him through all the stuff that seems to come with the Singulair!

My son was on Singulair for 4 years the start of an absolute nightmare,but never did i make the connection,i read the pamphlets i read the side affects i told my doctor,but we were hung out to dry to figure it out for ourselves,I have taken him to countless professionals,who always ask List your medications,I have cried in there offices i have begged for help.I ended up taking things into my own hands ,taking him out of school, home schooling and changing our families life to accommodate his sleeping difficulties and feelings of complete in adacy plz someone tell me this will get better, tell me this is the answer,finally when i talked to his pmd i was told to stop giving him the drug immediately

WOW! This is simply amazing. Every story I read is like someone is writing about my life. I am a single parent of a beautiful 7 yr old. My daughter has been on Singulair for 5 yrs. Like most she has the nightmares, mood swings, anger, endless energy, talks of death and dying. It is a very hard thing to watch your child go through this. It is horrible to have your 7 yr old tell you to just kill them. I couldn't tell you how many nights I have went to bed in tears after a day on this roller coaster of emotions. Like many other she has been LABELED as an ADHD & ODD child. For the past 2 yrs we have been fighting the battle of the diagnosis of ADHD and ODD and her ped is now saying possibly Bi-Polar. We are now trying a 4th med for the SUPPOSED ADHD since none have seemed to help and some have made it even worse. We have had countless appointments with doctors, counselors, and school about her behavior problems. Not to mention the amount of time at work I have missed. Now her ped has suggested a psychiatrist for the possible diagnosis of Bi-Polar. Well to my surprise all of this may be a side effect of a med that has worked so well for her asthma and allergies. I will be calling her specialist first thing Monday morning and see what options we have because she is getting off of Singulair. I am torn here....part of me is so angry that this med could be what has caused all this pain that my daughter and I have went through BUT part of me will be very happy to know that all these LABELS that my daughter has already gotten from her docs and at school will be wrong. It will be a great relief to know that this could all be over soon.

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!

All this new information has me wondering. My 16 year old son has been on Singulair now fro approx. 9 years . He started having some problems in school like worrying about everything and being afraid. When he turned 12 we seen a big change he refused to go to school he would cry and hang on the sofa arm , his father would have to to remove his fingers and carry him to the school bus. No counselors could tell us what was wrong. The school provided a tutor one on one that seemed to work but he would not steo foot in a school or socialize with kids. He is now 16 and I home school him he still at times will show some signs of anxiety but he is happy at home with family. He is also tired a lot and has trouble concentrating for long periods of time . I wonder if this drug has done this to my child and taken away the education he could of had. I will be calling his Ped. on MONDAY.

My daughter is 12 years old and was diagnosed late last year with exercise and/or stress induced asthma. She had a severe asthma attack at school. I was hesitant about taking her to the ped, as she had never had an attack before. She has always had allergy problems, I guess it is typical to where we live. The pediatrician put her on singulair and she uses a rescue inhaler, ProAir. The doc gave me a months worth of sample tabs to give to her to see if it would improve her wheezing and coughing. IT WORKED! The tabs they gave me were 10mgs. Because it was all new to us, sometimes we missed a dose or two, but her symptoms improved, but she also experienced headaches, nausea, complained of her mouth hurting, especially in the mornings and she couldn't sleep (these symptoms we noticed after seven days of being on the meds). I read the pamphlet for side affects and these were typical side affects, not to be alarmed right? By the time we made it through the all the tabs she started with some behaviors you might expect to be normal for pre-teens and some that were alarming. Most parents know their children very well, especially behaviors. My pre-treen was a very loving and agreeable child and never had outbursts of anger that was uncalled for. To make a long story short, I didn't fill the prescription because of the above stated behaviors. Within about eight days, my child was back, but so was the wheezing and the coughing and the picking her up from school three times a week because of her asthma, so back to the doctor we went again. They wrote the prescription for singulair 10mgs and I got it filled. A very interesting thing happened when I went and filled the prescription. The pharmacist told me that the doctor was prescribing too high of a dose for my child, that the 10mg dose is usually given to adults and not children. So I cut the tabs in half and started her back on the meds. She has been on them for almost three weeks now and it has of course helped the wheezing and the coughing but we are back to not sleeping, angry outbursts (probably from not sleeping) and not wanting to go anywhere or do anything with her family or friends. When I saw the news about singulair it really scared me, because I love my child and I don't want anything bad to happen to her. I called the doctors office, our doctor was out, the nurse said for me to not give her the meds for the rest of weekend until I can talk to her doctor on Monday. I will update you all of what our pediatrician has to say.

Well all i can say is it is about time they investigate this stuff! My daughter was put on this 2 yrs. ago and was on it for 1 year off and on. It was a complete nightmare. She experienced nightmares, leg pains, crying all the time, getting into trouble at school, teacher would call every week about something, several urinary tract infections,which lead to many test of why. Really bad mood swings, and aggression. I used to hate it when she got of the school bus. Because i knew it was going to be on the minute she walked in the door. She would cry to me and say she" hates her self" and "mama i do not know why I am so mean." I kept taking her back to her ped. and she would ask are you still giving her the singulair and one day i said no. The doctor got mad at me because i told her i did not like that stuff. She said it was fine to give it to her. I told everyone i knew not to give it to their child because finally i realized it was making my child depressed and feel worse. I am so mad about this. It makes me sick. I want to sue the makers of this drug.

My almost 7 year old son was prescribed Singulair 3 years ago for severe asthma and allergies. It worked great--for a while. No hospitalizations, incidences of bi-lateral mucous plugs and pneumonia decreased, etc. I thought it was a miracle drug for him. This past summer/fall however, the nightmares, sleepless nights, multiple sinus infections, moodiness and mild anxiety, extreme hunger (he can now eat my 6'7" 260 lb. husband under the table and my son only weighs 52 lbs.), thirst, leg pains, reflux and very frequent complaints of stomach aches and nausea, etc. began. He was even admitted to our local Children's hospital in November for a severe upper respiratory infection that affected his asthma and blood oxygen levels and for the first time ever, did not respond to therapy. He was on oxygen for 3 days. Not realizing all this was likely due to Singulair, I took him to his ped. pulmonologist, pediatrician, ped. allergist, a ped. gasteroenterologist, and an ENT. None of our doctors suspected the Singulair--and I still have confidence that they are all good doctors. In December, he had surgery to cauterize the inferior turbinates in his nose and remove his adenoids to try to alleviate the sinus infections. At the same time, we had an upper G.I. series done to see if we could find what was causing all the stomach aches and reflux. The GI doctor found nothing. I am just sick to think that Singulair did all this to him, that we put him through surgery to try and "fix" the symptoms, and doctors and parents didn't know enough about the side effects of this drug to suspect it as a possible culprit!! I called our pulmonologist and pediatrician this morning to report my suspicions and took him off it. I sure hope his symptoms will improve.

I have been so worried about my 8 yr. old daughter for the last few weeks. She takes Singulair for asthma/allergies and she has become a different person recently...She has been abnormally worried about being forgotten at school, karate, and even church. (She has never been forgotten anywhere!).
She cries at the drop of a hat and is unusually nervous about things.

I was really concerned about it to the point that I was about to take her to her pediatrician and then last night I saw the information on the news, so I have stopped the meds for now, but I don't know what to do to treat her asthma. She has not had an attack in almost a year and I don't want it to start back up again. We only take the Singulair during her bad seasons (spring and fall)...Have put in a call to the Ped. to get an answer...

Our 7 year old daughter has had "problems" for several years. After a news report this evening, it now makes sense - her problems are being caused by Singulair. I have sought treatment from 4 doctors in the past 3 months disparately pleading for their help to figure out what is wrong with her.

She began taking Singulair when we found she had allergies to cats and dogs at age 2 (since I nursed her for over 1 & 1/2 years and her allergies didn't appear until about 6 months after my "immunities" left her system). After several middle of the night visits to the ER for her difficulty choking/coughing in the middle of the night, the ped. suggested allergy testing. She was always quite "in your face" but in a sweet way and was quite defiant, so we always thought she purposely ignored us, especially while watching tv, but definitely a "live wire" all the while.

After 4 years of pre-school and dozens of notes indicating that she didn't follow the teachers directions, she was found to have a hearing impairment, just as she was entering Kindergarten. Needless to say, life for her has been a roller coaster for the past year and a half. The behavior problems have not improved; terrible twos at age seven...

Then, just a couple of weeks ago, she broke down crying in the bathtub, and commented that she sometimes wants to hurt herself because she can't stop herself from behaving badly (she often will get bad behavior check marks in school for 10-15 days straight, and then seems fine a week or two later and the cycle repeats itself sporadically).

The treatment for her allergies - - - we got rid of our cat and dog 5 years ago, and only give her the allergy medicines as needed (Singulair and Zyrtec)...meaning that we proactive avoidance and contact of all pets and animals and the homes where they live. We will give them to her a day or two in advance if she has an upcoming trip to the zoo, etc. and continue for several days after being exposed.

The past 3 months, I have spent countless endless nights searching the internet for answers, knowing something else is wrong with her. I have begged her battery of different doctors (pediatrician, ENT, allergy, audiologists) for answers, and even specifically asked her allergy doctor a month ago if there is any way, shape, or form that her medicines could cause behavior problems. I was assured it was not possible. Tonight I found out that Singulair has "new side effect warnings".

My direction for finding answers has always (until now) been aligned with her hearing loss. I have read every study on children with hearing loss and behavior issues that I have been able to get my hands on. Our doctor office visits are overwhelming and average 4 times a month - for all different things. We have an appointment tomorrow for new ear molds for her hearing aids and I insisted she be tested again to be sure the hearing aids are working perfectly- hoping this is the missing link. She is being tested again for allergies on April 11th to see if new ones have crept up. She is having an auditory sensory processing evaluation on April 24th, again in my search for answers. Just last week, I demanded an emergency meeting at her school and basically stood up to the entire IEP team and told them they are doing a horrible job, since I can't get them to help me figure out the problem and freak out on them for the lack of help I receive with regard to her hearing loss and the FM (microphone) system I forced the school district to put in place so she can hear the teacher's voice in the classroom, over the sounds of the other kids.

I have probably been deemed crazy by all of her doctors & their staff, her first grade teacher, and everyone at the school district that I have encountered in the past 20 months or so. So much so, that her ENT (Ear) doctor called me a week ago after a recent visit to indicate to me that he thinks that not only does my daughter need to see a therapist to figure out what is wrong, but indicated that stress has taken it's toll on me as well and offered to write a prescription for therapy if necessary! I feel like I am living in a novel which is not even my life.

For all I know, she may be have really meant it when she told us once that she used to be able to hear just fine...so I cant help but to sit here crying and wondering if there is a link to her hearing loss from the Singulair too?

To hear her say she wanted to hurt herself was the hardest thing I have ever endured in my life. And so out of her world (she is the most outgoing extrovert imaginable) that I have lost myself in a sea of unknowing doubt, anger and frustration, since she said it. My boss, colleagues, family, school district staff, several doctor office staffs and several other "specialists" whom I contacted in late night emails, begging for guidance could atest to this mad attempt of mine to find a cause.

The best moment: when we drove away from the ENT with her new hearing aids, windows down, and she said: "Mom, I can hear the wind"

Worst moment in life: hearing my 7 year old baby say she sometimes wants to hurt herself because she can't stop herself from behaving badly.

My advice: for allergies, get a sharper image ionic air purifier for the bedroom- well worth $200!!! Get hearing tests for children who "do not listen" or follow directions. STOP TAKING SINGULAIR!!!! Send your information to the FDA immediately.

My daughter is 15yr old and has been taking Singular since she was 4 yrs old. It is rather shocking to see some of the side effects being spoke about, as she has experienced some of these same side effects. The pain in the side that others have referred to as the 'stitch' in the side. We have taken her to several different physicians and they all state that it is from exercise, or growing pains, or the way she sleeps at night. This has been going on with her for at least 3 yrs. She also experiences the terrible buzzing tone in her ears that others have experienced. I have taken her to the ear/nose/throat physician several times and he states that it would need to be fixed by surgery... hmmm... sure makes a parent wonder! She also experiences frequent headaches, and is exhausted when she wakes up in the morning after a good 10 hrs of sleep.
I will be contacting her pediatrician in the morning as my daughter only has one lung and has terrible asthma, although I would like to know the other options rather that Singulair.

Our son is nearly six and has been on Singulair since he was 2 y/o. We put is bad behavior down to the "Terrible Two's". He has always displayed signs of poor concentration, impulsive behavior, hyper and the list goes on. Last December his PED proscribed Bactrim for a resp problem and it was just last weekend where we hit breaking point. His behavior has become aggressive along with all of the other bad behavior to the point we have been called for meetings with his new school to have a Physical assessment done.
I researched Bactrim last weekend and it was described as poison which we took him off right away and, it was pure luck i stumbled across this website to find that Singulair may be the EVIL after all.

We took him off both medications 4 days ago and we are praying we see behavioral changes soon....Already i have noticed he is more settled and relaxed while watching TV etc.

Can anyone tell me how long it takes for the medication to leave their system?