My 6 year old son has had all of these more or less. He has been ...

Regarding the post from Micah. I took my son off of Singulair a little over 5 weeks ago and it took much longer than 3 days for this drug to get out of my son's system (he is 9 yrs old). Its not completely out of him yet but in 5 weeks time he is about 90% better. He developed ticks, depression, aggression, gloom and doom, frequent urination, severe headaches, always sad or angry, became psychotic and paranoid, hallucinated he saw things that wern't there and heard people "calling his name" or "talking about him" and had the most horrible and graphic nightmares nightly. He had thoughts about stabbing me and his sister and our dog. Couldn't make friends anymore and became a social outcast, etc... The list goes on. I had every test imaginable done on him. He tested normal for everything (except they found a pineal cyst during one of his MRI's). Just hang in there and just be as supportive as possible. It is going to take a while - I have read that the rule of thumb is that it takes 1/4 of the time a person has been on Singulair to get out of their system. For example if you have been on it for 4 yrs then it should take 1 yr to clear out. I personally don't think it takes that long but I will tell you this, that the 1st 2 weeks or so were pretty bad but then it starts to get better and when it does it will get better fast. There are going to be days at a time with no "symptoms" then one day out of nowhere they come back, then there gone for a longer period of time. It will go on like this until the time between "symptoms" gets longer and longer. My son still has issues here and there but compared to how bad he had gotten and the point that he is at now is a miracle. I had forgotten how enjoyable a child he really was. Again, he will get better just let it get out of his poor little body. Take care.

I would like to talk with you more about this. The drs dont believe it is the singulair because they say it should be completely out of his system. Three days to a week max. This is different for you. and encouraging for us. $$$ and still no answers. I wrote a private email to you giving you my home phone number. Please call so that my wife and I can learn a little bit about what might be happening. Thanks again for posting.

Micah

my son also suffered many serious side effects from singulair. he was on the singulair for 3 years. he has been off singulair for 8 weeks. he made dramatic improvements after 2 weeks. doctors do not seem to realize the side effects of this drug in some children. when his dosage was increased due to his age, the side effects amplified and it became more apparent to me there was a problem. otherwise, he might have gone on for years suffering silently. there needs to be a public awareness effort regarding this drug. no doubt many other children are suffering side effects and parents and doctors are not realizing it is the singulair. please email me at jjlhoops@alltel.net. i would be happy to share our experience with you.

Hi, I haven't read much about the side effects of taking Singulair but I can tell people who read this web site about what our family has experienced while taking it. My teen daughter had taken it for about 3 months for asthma and I immediately noticed that she had become extremely irritable and even angry and she even seemed as though she was not paying attention to the things that she normally would and that her listening skills diminished while on the medication. So I took her off of it and asked the Dr. for a different treatment plan and all is much better for her now (this was yrs. ago). This year (and some of last yr.), my 12 yr. old son has been on Singulair (10mg daily for about the duration of 8 months) for exercise induced asthma with intermittent chest pains brought on by the asthma. The Singulair has worked wonderfully on his asthma, keeping him in a pretty normal state asthma-wise. Then over time up until recently, we have noticed his ADHD getting much worse especially his behavior and many times daily he would have fits of anger for no apparent reason; he would have trouble perceiving the situation correctly or he would be way too sensitive to something that was said or done and he would go into a very dramatic fit of anger and make growling sounds and faces and clinch his fists and hit things or people and we didn't realise it was due to him taking Singulair so we thought we better put him on meds. for ADHD (we felt we had no choice). We tried meds. for ADHD and he had a terrible reaction to it and was vomitting along with having other reactions (hallucinations, shaking, swollen lips etc.etc.) so I took him off of everything for two weeks and once all of the allergic reactions wore off, I realised that his ADHD was better and I remembered our experience with our daughter years ago! So now his asthma symptoms are back and I have to go explain to the doctor, whether or not it will be believed, what I found out and that we need to get a replacement for the Singulair. I am just shocked because I thought it was working really well for asthma and I would not have expected any medication- unless it was hormonal replacement meds.- to cause anger fits and to worsen ADHD symptoms. Well, Singulair, it looks like you're just not for my family---- I think you had better get it together and improve the medication before you have alot of lawsuits on your tail!!!! As it is, you couldn't possibly make up the damage that you have caused countless families to endure......
This medication does work for allergies and asthma---- but the side effects make it not worth the time or money.

Hi,

my 4 year old was on the drug for 3 months. It was the most nighmarish time for our family. A sweet, well tempered child turned into uncontrollable person - agressive, anxiety attacks, ADHD syndroms, nightmares, frequent urinating, himpossible to agree with, started having temper tantrums so bad he even didn't have as a 2 year old!!!

Once we connected the change caused by Sigulair (I wish I would have linked it earlier, still hate myself for feedin the pill every day for him for 3 months!!!!), we researched every site there was on the internet.

On this same site in some older posts there was a mom whose daughter started having saizures and now she is on drugs, as the lady put, for the rest of her life, to stop the seizures. In fact, the mom is filing a law suit againstnerck and was asking everyone to contact her who have experienced same.

To calm you down - my son stopped having the side effects caused by Singulair within 10 days or so after we stopped administrating the drug.

The drug is awful!!! Also, it shocks me at what ease doctors prescribe the medication to kids!!! They believe the drug is 'very safe', and doctors both in the US and Europe confirmed this to me. I hate to think how many aprents are out there giving the Singulair to their kids and not realizing that kids might have or have laready side effects! Especially toddles - because at some point I thought our son has some kind of late terrible twos.

it will be surely longer than 3 days to get the damn thing out of child's system! Be patient and take care.
It is schocking the doctors (or most of them) have no idea on these side effects!!!!! When I told our doctor for the first time my suspicions on the medication, he just shook his head and thought I am nuts and just looking for a reason for my childs behaviour. But, you know, child does not turn from nicely tempered into completely out of his mind (this is exactly how he had become - like ill person on many occasions) withing 10 days. Thank God, everything is nack to normal. And I learned my lesson not to trust doctors, drugs and question everything.

Hi , My son has been very anxious , he has hyperventilated , has nightmares and is very upset when we go anywhere. He cries to go to school and says he misses me , He's 9. He is so negative all the time. He hasn't had an asthma problem in about 2 years. My son has cold induced asthma. He always got a little cold, then the cough and fever. He had pnemonia at like every cold. He has grown out of it a bit and doesn't have seasonal allergies. My son had facial ticks....a heavy feeling in his head. It goes on and on. I never thought it was singulair. My son goes off Flovent in the summer and back on by September. The doctor never suggested going off singulair. He has had so many un-explained problems. When he hyperventalated on 3 occasions they assured me they were not seizures. I had a friend who's son was on for 4 months. She noticed his sleep was off and his personallity changed and she took him off. My son has now been off for 3 days. I'm very hopeful....so far so good , no complaints or crying fits just going out to eat. No over reactions when he is disiplined..........I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Let's see if he doesn't cry tomorrow morning. Mondays are the worst. He has been on for 4 years ! I am going to get the date when he went from 4Mg to 5 and see if I can pin point when his behavior got worse..........

It only took 3 days for my 3 yr old daughter to experience the side effects of singulair. Unfortunatly, she got scarlet fever right after she was put on this horrible medication and the Dr. shrugged off the possibility of any connection to behavior changes and the singulair. I noticed and so did the rest of her family. I stopped giving it to her as soon as she showed signs of a negative reaction, but here I am 3 days later dealing with fits of anger and angry restless sleep. My point... it only took 3 days for EVERY side effect to consume my daughter and the ER doctor nor her piediatrition believes it. Parents you know your children better than anyone QUESTION EVERYTHING!

My son is also six years old. He began taking his prescription of Singulair in March 2008. He had been having some behavioral problems at school, but nothing more than not wanting to move from one center to another, getting frustrated when he was learning something new and getting mad. They have a color system of green-yellow-blue-red, with Green being best. He was remaining between green and yellow until shortly after the meds.

But not long after he began his meds, just a few days before spring break, his father's new wife had a new baby, and my son had to spend an entire week there with the newborn and all that comes with that. He has alread been subjected to go through a horrible divorce, with a "rehabilitating" meth addict as a father, multiple teacher changes (3 teachers plus subs in one year of kindergarten), and more.

After returning to school from spring break, his behavior has been increasingly declining. He has remained on blue and red, breaking out in rages throwing pencils at students, throwing chairs, extreme behavior that my son NEVER POSSESSED prior to March.

I took him to see a couselor, who then referred me to a psychologist who basically said within the first ten minutes "He needs to be medicated".

I have since stopped his Singulair. It's been about a week and his behavior has gotten somewhat better. But the damage is already done to the point that the school all but demands he be retained for kindergarten. I do not wish to have to drug my son for him to be able to go to school. He's not a child that is always going 90 miles an hour. He's always been laid back and relaxed at home.

I'm grateful that I stopped his meds as soon as a family member emailed me a news article about the Singulair and that the issues did not pregress any further than what they've already become.

My son is 6 and has only been on singulair for 5 days. Last night I noticed a facial tick where he would blink his eyes 3 times quickly and then squeeze his eyes tightly closed wrinkling his nose and releasing it. He did this many times over. This morning before school I didn't see him doing it, but then after he got home from school it seemed much worse, and he was doing it a lot more. I called my doctor and he told me to stop giving him the Singulair, even though he had not heard of it causing this kind of side effect, and we would check back with him within a few days. My son has mild allergies, but was put on it because he had a hoarse sounding voice for two weeks and they thought it was due to allergies, his voice is now back to normal, but this facial tick has been terrifying me. Thanks to all of you that have posted your stories, I am feeling very relieved that it sounds like this will stop soon, and it is probably not a much more serious condition. Thank you for sharing and God Bless all your little ones.

My son is 9 he was put on singulair for allergies. After taking this for 3 weeks he started crying really bad saying he is thinking of death. I sat down with him and talked to him and there was no reason for him to be filling this way so I started looking up side effects of singulair and one of them was depression so I discontinued use. it has been over a month I have had the school counselor talking to him I have taken him to another pshycologist and the only thing he can come up with is the medicine side effects. I don't know how long this is going to take to get out of his body but if I would of known there is this chance I would not have given it to my child. He cries every night and nothing I say or do helps him. It is a hard thing to deal with. You thought you was helping your child by putting them on it and you have done more damage to them. As a parent this makes you want to never use another drug for any illness.

I know how you feel. You will be happy to know that after a few months time my son (now 8) is doing great. He is 100% now of course. Just hang in there and be very loving and sensative with him. He may retain some of the fears for a while but the morbid death talk should subside as well as the night time saga. Once my boy was off the drug for a while he began to look like his old sweet self. It is a slow recovery and you may think it is permanent but it will get better. Just be patient and you will see. God bless you.

Had my daughter on Singulair for 2 1/2 years, from age 4 to 6 1/2. An absolute nightmare! She had all the symptoms discussed on this forum.
It was 6mths to a year before all her side effects subsided. She is a healthy 11 year old now. Just wanted to let those experiencing the horrible side effects of this drug to know the sooner you discontinue it's use the better.