Pediatric asthma symptoms and conditions

for the people that have taken their children off singulair...
what are you using for a preventative med?
my daughter has really bad asthma and I don't know of any alternatives

I also want to add that he has been having nightmares a lot as well. And exhibiting some behavioral issues on and off at school.

Again I can not tell you how scary this is. I have no clue where to start or what to tell my congressman. What do I say? Do I make specific reference to Singulair or do I just medicines in general? No offense, but right now my concerns are selfish, and I need to find another alternative to Singulair. I cant bear to have my son experience what I have to deal with everyday with my depression.

He says things like
"I hate myself" and
"This is the worst day of my life"

I am so scared I plan to call his Dr first in the morning.

My daughter had been on singulair from the time she was 8 yrs old until she was 14. This will sound as if I am a horrible mother but I just thought that she was a raging bitch. Without my knowledge, she stopped taking her Singulair for a few months and she became a different person. She was so sweet and loving. One night she came in my room having an asthma attack and I asked her if she was taking her meds, she admitted that she had stopped taking her singulair and I got on to her and immediately got her prescription refilled. Within a few days of taking the singulair she turned into a raging, screaming emotional wreck, a TOTALLY different person. I feel so bad that for 6 years of her life I put her on medicine that caused her to have screaming, uncontrollable tantrums, and severe mood swings that caused her to be miserable. It does seem to be the only thing that effectively controls her asthma symptoms but the emotional havoc that is causes her and the people around her is not worth the benefits. We have an appt. with her doctor to see what other options we have.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

To all the parents who are wondering what else their child can take as an alternative to Singulair, please read an exact quote from a leading professor of Pharmacology and Pediatrics at the University of Florida:

"In response to your last comment, I think Singulair has modest efficacy, and if we take all of our patients off this drug, they won’t suffer. This is not an important drug for pediatric asthma, as are inhaled corticosteroids."

There you have it folks. Singulair is NOT an important drug for pediatric asthma and has an overall moderate efficacy. Inhaled corticosteroids have a much higher efficacy. I have communicated directly with this professor through email.
Any questions??

My son age 3 was diagnosed with asthma about a year ago. Since then he has been sick constantly. Most recently his doctor has prescribed Singulair. He is aggressively pushing it on us. I stated my concerns to him, and he said there is nothing wrong with the drug.. he gets all the news letters.. and all the things I listed was the first time he heard anything.. I asked for his to refer us to a specialist and he wont.. I cant find anyone for a second opinion..My son needs medicine- at night i cant leave his side cause of his breathing.. The doctor wont suggest any alternate and I am stuck. I keep reading about all the people who are not taking singulair anymore- what what are they taking? I am completely lost here!

I have communicated directly with Leslie Hendeles, a leading professor of pharmacology and pediatrics at the University of Florida who's direct quote to me was:
"In response to your last comment, I thing Singulair has modest efficacy, and if we take all of our patients off this drug, THEY WON'T SUFFER. This is NOT an important drug for pediatric asthma, as are inhaled corticosteroids."

Ironically, this is the same individual who was quoted in an ABC news article as saying:
"We have hundreds of children on Singulair and have never heard parents make complaints about psychiatric side effects. Moreover, there is no mechanism for this reaction … We will be telling our patients not to worry about this."

WAKE UP EVERYONE...THIS IS AN ADMITTEDLY OVERPRESECRIBED DRUG THAT HAS WORKED WELL FOR MANY, BUT HAS ALSO RUINED MANY LIVES.

The manner in which this drug is casually overprescribed by so many doctors is freakish. I firmly believe that this drug has caused countless misdiagnoses such as ADHD, Bipolar disorder and others. IT FUELS A GOOD PART OF THE ECONOMY TO PUT SO MANY PEOPLE ON THESE DRUGS. I BELIEVE THE PHARM INDUSTRY IS VERY CALCULATED IN THIS MANNER.

Question what your doctors tell you.
See my other posts under matthewct1. I dealt with a situation where my 5 yr. old son was on the road to being diagnosed with ADHD which couldn't have been further from the truth. Singulair changed him. Since he's been off Singulair everyone (teachers, pediatrician, family, etc.) unanimously agree that he does not show the ADHD symptoms like he did on Singulair.

My son is 10 years old and has been on 5 mg. singulair for 3 years. He has been getting frequent headaches,and is in the bathtub right now screaming with one! Also alot of depression.I just came upon this website accidently ,by searching the internet for what might be causing such headaches in a child. I was shocked at all of these symptoms! I am not going to give him any more singulair.But what is everyone doing to replace it and deal with their kids asthma problems? My son has had so may behavioral issues and being so unreasonable and always thinks were picking on him.To extremes! Very hars to deal with,constantly! TC

Good evening all....I as well as you all have a story to share about my son. Kameron lived the terrible twos to the fullest and turned into the biggest sweetheart when he turned 3. But then his doc wanted to try something stronger for his allergies and thats when Singulair changed out lives. Kameron has been on that junk since about November/December and since then everyones lives around him has been pure hell. He turned into satan in the flesh. I have never seen as much anger as I do in my son. On a weekly basis we go through stomach pains, depression, anger issues, him not eating for days, many sleepless nights, and thats not even all of them. He has spit in my husbands face and called me very bad words (that nobody has ever used in front of him towards me), Ive walked around with black eyes from him (remember he is only 3), he has given me bloody noses and straight up told his dad and I both that he hates us, and doesnt love us anymore. We cant take him around our friends children cause he is very abusive and controlling with them. He shows no interest in the things that he once loved, like his toys and pets. We have taken him to the doc and have been told over and over again that he is just a typical 3 year old but a mama knows when something is wrong with her baby!!I havent seen my sons precious smile since this stuff has taken over him or even heard him laugh. Im taking him to a different doc tomorrow and takin all of your comments with me and I am not leaving his office till they do something for my son!! My thoughts n prayers are with all of you that are goin through this cause I myself now how hard its been..

It would have been about 4 years ago My Doctor prescribed Singulair for my 16 year old son. He became very hateful and always in a bad mood and at times major fits of anger. At one point he got so angry ridding in the car together that I pulled over and made him get out and walk home in the rain because he was punching the interior of the car windows, and I was worried he would break them and hurt himself and others. He ran away from home....and so on...you get the drift. He quit the Singulair and is scared to take anything new now. He says he take Benadryl and uses Albuterol but won't take anything else. Now I started taking Singualar a year ago and I have done okay on it however I know that sometimes I snap at things that in the past I didn't. The funny thing is when the doctor gave it to me I mentioned to him the effects it had on my son and he looked at me like I was crazy!

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.

my daughter was prescribed singulair at 3 years old after several visits to the ER. her asthma was controlled immediately, but her behavior changed too. she is now 6 (singulair dose upped to 5mg) and has slowly transformed from an intelligent, happy, fearless, excited child to someone who was having trouble in school concentrating, depression, scared of everything, tummy aches, heart palpataions, chronic sinusitis.

we went through several tests from cystic fibrosis to blood work for white blood count and also chrones testing because of the constant stomach irritation and cramping. i finally looked up side effects to singulair two weeks ago...read all of this and took her off of it, and off of zyrtec (please look up zyrtec...BAD STUFF) she is slowly back to her old self but absolutely not angry, depressed, and crying all the time!!!!! just had teacher conferences and her teachers were shocked at her personality switch. they were floored at her drive for learning and her attitude adjustment. they wanted to know what had changed so rapidly!!!!

she still takes advair 100 and i now have her on a heavy dose of vitamins/minerals (including quercitin, omega oil, vitamin a, vitamin c, etc.) recommended in a pediatric asthma health cures book i read. we are working toward a balance in controlling behavior and asthma and i hope to god this works. it is so nice to have my happy daughter back!!!

please, if anyone knows about other successful homeopathic approaches please let me know.