Singulair and bedtime

I have been reading all of these posts and have another question. I hope that someone can help. My daughter, 8 years old, has been on Singulair since she was 4. She is normally a very happy girl with a wonderful disposition. For the last year or so, she has been having trouble getting herself to sleep at night. She says that she hears things in her head such as ringing or "noises". A few hours before she knows it's bedtime, she cries and when we ask her why she's crying, she can't give us a reason. We initially thought that she was crying for no reason because she didn't want to go to sleep. I remember reading about the side effects of Singulair causing mood swings, etc., but her's are not violent mood swings. Just very emotional and has a hard time coming down from the "episode". I'm at a loss...I have not talked to her doctor yet about it, but have told her that we will make an appointment this week to discuss it with him. My husband suggested that maybe it sounded like she was having a panic attack or anxiety attack. I hate to label her as that at such a young age. My mind now goes back to the side effects of Singulair and maybe this is to blame. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Concerned Mom

Has anyone's kids had trouble sleeping since taking Singular. My son has been on it for a couple weeks and seems not to be able to go to sleep very easy. Also it seems to wear off kind of fast, by bedtime he's stuffy and itchy.

My 10 year old son has asthma. His inhaler is not working so the Dr. put him on Singular yesterday. I had him take one right when we got it. I then dropped him off at a friends house. Around 2pm I picked him up. He fell right asleep when we got home. He woke up crying. He proceded to cry & be totally unreasonable for 5 hours (until bedtime). He told us he didn't want to play football & he didn't like it (this from a kid who lives for football). He then proceded to call his coach & quit football. We tried to console him but there was no consoling him. This was all after being on it for less than 12 hours. I think the only reason we noticed this dramatic change in demeanor was because his is normally a very good kid & he instantly became uncontrollable. I then called his friends mom & according to his friends older sister he was 'out of it' for most of the time he was there & kept asking the same questions over & over. Needless to say he will not be taking another Singular pill! I have notified my son's Dr. of this & hopefully they will report it to the company.

Sales of Merck's asthma and allergy drug Singulair dropped 1% to $1.1 billion for the second quarter. U.S. sales have been hurt by the recent introduction of an over-the-counter version of rival drug Zyrtec by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), as well as concerns about the Food and Drug Administration's March alert of a possible association between Singulair and suicide and related behavioral side effects Got this off cnn money,i don't know but thought zyrtec and singulair were different drugs,my son at one time was prescribed both to take at bedtime

My 10 year old son has taken Singulair on and off since he was 5 years old and has been on it for the past 3.5 years. My son at an early age was affected by a bad marriage and then the divorce when he was 5 yrs old. So we always suspected that his behavior issues were caused by this and I had done everything I possibly could to give them the help he needed to get over and through his issues. He was held back his first year of Kindergarden and during his second year midstream he was placed in a special class for behavioral problem children. Nothing ever seemed to help him, everytime we would see some progress and encouragement we were always blind sighted by a behavior that was always worse. Two steps forward and them 5 steps backwards. I always knew that his problems would never get better overnight so I just kept on going. He was diagnosed with ADHD but because he has some ticking issues I had to put him on Strattera which was did not do a thing for him. I always described him as my Dr. Jeckyll/ Mr. Hyde child. He could be really good and sit still and behave but I think he had to try really hard to do so. He eventually was always overpower by the impulse to show negative behaviors. Defiant, extremely impulsive, always negative and completely miserable all the time. He also went through phases of compulsions. There was always a compulsion of the month- germs, bathroom habits, noises, repetitive words. He hated school and always complained of a stomach ache which i thought he was always faking to get out of school. He had confrontations in school everyday for most of the day. I often thought some of this was because of being tired all the time. We had battled over bedtime every single night. He was terrified to go to bed alone, I tried everything to get him to sleep alone. I wore myself out falling asleep next to him, I would then go to my own bed only to be up with him half the night going back and forth. I gave in many a night and slept with him just so we could get a good nights sleep. At age 8.5 I finally got him to go to sleep alone but the lights haf to be on and he has to know that I am still awake before he will fall asleep. He would always say he didn't want to go to sleep because when he does he has bad thoughts about me and people that he loves. He always had an extremely hard time excepting the word "no"- he would flip out and hit his head with whatever was handy, throw things, break things, scream holler etc. It would take hours to get over it. When he did he would be very remorseful and lovable. He was always in turmoil. Finally in February of this year, this graduated to a new level where he would want to just kill himself and would actually go and pull a knife out of the drawer and just shake with anger as he held the knife to his throat. I was terrified although i really didn't think he was going to harm himself he just wanted to scare me. Then at the end of March when i first heard the news about the possible side effects of Singulair, I had only heard about the suicide effect. Oh great just what I needed was this medicine causing him to do that. The doctor was thinking about taking him off if this summer because he wanted to see if he out grew his seasonal allergies so I took him off immediately. Well I had no idea about the other side effects until my son turned into a completely different kid. School noticed a huge difference in him! His grades went up, his is able to control his behavior, he is happy he is NORMAL. I never suspected this drug as the culprit due to the timing of taking it. Our lives have changed completely. When i first found this site, it seemed as though some of the parents were writing about my child. It is amazing. My son still has some old habits to break but overall he is a wonderful and normal 10 year old boy. He did not outgrow his seasonal allergies but Allegra seems to help in through it. I get so angry- his whole early childhood was ruined by this medicine. He is a labled kid in our school system. This whole experience has opened up my eyes. Thank you for letting me share my story.

I took my son off Singular a month ago, some slight improvements with the sleep and behavior problems. I voiced my concerns with my doctor twice now he looks at me like Im crazy and then he goes on the PC and says he cant find any of these side affects im talking about. My son was an appointment to see an allergist specialist.

Our son started taking Singulair when he was 2 for severe allergic rhinitis and cough variant asthma (in addition to Zyrtec, which didn’t control all of his symptoms). He is 5 now. For the last three years, he has been an increasingly violent, difficult, defiant, argumentative, volatile child who has intense mood swings--one minute he’s laughing uncontrollably, the next he’s weeping over nothing. His doctor and therapist recommended that we see a psychiatrist to have him evaluated for bipolar disorder, which used to be unknown in children. Because he has such chronic sleep problems, the doctor also suggested we take him off Singulair (and increase his Zyrtec dose) to see if it improved his sleep issues. Within a week, he was sleeping much better and was a calmer, happier, gentler boy. He suddenly could take “no” for an answer without flipping out and trying to hurt me. We thought that we were just in an unusual, calm window that would shift either to mania or intense sadness or both, any minute. We also thought that his behavior change might be due to sleeping better. We were enjoying the rare reprieve. Over the last weekend, his springtime allergies really flared up. We gave him Singulair on Monday and by noon, he was completely out of control. I had to strap him into his car seat at one point to keep him from hurting either me or himself. It finally occurred to me that Singulair might be causing his “bipolar” disorder. Of course, we stopped the Singulair. After two days he was a new boy. Yesterday, I Googled “Singulair bipolar children” and got a few hits. I am stunned to read how similar other families’ experiences have been to ours and I feel sick that we gave this drug to our child for three years.

I wrote an earlier post but I am now reading alot of your posts where you say your child experienced FEAR on Singulair. That is so interesting. When my son was on it for around 3 years he would never sleep alone in his own bed and he would have episodes every night that would last up to 3 hours at bed time because I would try to get him to sleep in his own bed, even at 8 years old. I thought he was possessed!!!! He would scream and fight me and I would literally have to hold him down to get him to stay in bed. It was horrible. I'm not sure how a hullicination would be described but maybe that was part of it. All I know is that he turned into a totally different child. It was something out of a horror movie. I eventually gave up and let him sleep in our bed cause it was exhausting. He would just make blood curdling screams and the terror in his eyes was horrific. Then the next morning he would be fine like nothing had ever happened.
Now that he is off of Singulair he will sleep in his own bed with the light off all night. It was an amazing turn around. He also told me he's not scarred anymore.. Who knew????? Has anyone else experienced anything like that with their child????

Both my children, ages 4 and 7, are currently taking Singulair chewable tablets for their seasonal allergies. They have been doing so for about three months. At first, I was not consistent in giving them the medicine. It wasn't until recently that I decided I should give it to them as prescribed, once daily before bedtime. During this time I heard about an incident linking this medication to a suicide. I shrugged it off thinking this could not happen to my children. Little did I know that this medication has other serious side effects linked to it. For the past few weeks, my own 7 year old daughter has experienced many of those side effects including stomache aches, headaches, trouble falling asleep, irritability, mood swings, crying spells, and traumatic nightmares. She used to be a fun loving child who loved waking up to go to school. Now she does not want to get up in the morning and hates going to school. She cries easily over the smallest thing and complains frequently of headaches and stomach aches. My son on the other hand has become overly aggressive and I had concluded that maybe his video games or cartoons were to blame. Well, today I found your website and I will take them both off the medication indefinitely! Their allergies were not as severe to begin with so I figure that they should do okay without it. I will probably look into more natural/ herbal remedies to soothe them when they do get their allergies. I will definitley be reporting back as to their results.

Thank you so much for all the information! My son was prescribed Singulair pills this fall. He has been taking them for seasonal allergies and we had no problems. These were the sample chewable kind. Then came the pills... Unfortunately I did not see the news or read the article about the side affects of Singulair. Within 4 days my happy well adjusted 10 year old had serious sleeping problems along with stomach aches. He will wake up screaming and crying and cannot tell me what is wrong. He said he had a nightmare but doesn't remember what it was about.

My husband was away on a business trip when I started him on the medicine. He came back to a very unhappy and sleepy child. I asked my son what he was scared of and he asked me to tell daddy that he does not feel safe while he is out of town. He can't sleep unless he is by one of us. He's not safe. His bedroom is 15' from our bedroom! He loves his doctor and begged that I call Dr. Becky so he can talk to her.

I could not take this anymore and started thinking about what was wrong. I went through all his activities, friends he's played with, school problems, anything! Then it hit me, effects of Singulair!

Wow, what an eye opener. Fortunately my husband did not have him take it this morning. He will not be going back to this medication. Ever!

Thank you for the information once again. I hope everyone's child gets better. Everyone wants a happy well child. No child should have to go through this. They have enough pressure as it is without the meds making things worse.

Maeri

I just wanted to post an update on my son. I posted his story on Sunday since hearing about this investigation. He took his last Singulair on Saturday night and every day I see my happy boy coming back! He tells me that he has had a great day at school for the past two days, and that he has decided he isn't as "stupid" as he used to be! He also comes to me for hugs and kisses now and for the last two nights at bedtime he has said he just loves me so much that he feels like he can't stand it and he likes to fall asleep hugging my arm! This has not happened before. He was a loving toddler before he was put on this medication for asthma at three years old. Not long after that he became very hard to please, very sad, at times violent, even throwing metal tonka trucks at his big brother and laughing when he cut him! He has had leg pain, constant stomach pain , night terrors and was convinced that every where we went people just would not stop staring at him...I could go on and on. We went out to eat last night and he did not even notice anyone "looking at him" and was even making cute funny faces at a little toddler at the next table to make him laugh. I am so glad to find this website to see that I am not alone in all this. As for the people who are saying that we are making these claims up, I am not pursuing any action toward anyone on this, I am so happy that my son is returning to normal and no amount of money could replace this feeling! If any other parents would like to email me for support and a shoulder to lean on, feel free to email me. Laura jtolto@aol.com

I can hardly believe what I have read on this board. It is my son's story repeated over and over again and the sad fact is that I never put 2 and 2 together until I saw the news stories last week. My son has been on Singulair for years (he is now 7 years old) along with other drugs for asthma. We recently started taking him to a therapist because of his extreme unhappiness, violent temper tantrums, bad nightmares, many tics, and overall negative attitude. I took him off the singulair 5 days ago and cannot believe the results so far. My son is not affectionate in any way, does not even like a simple pat on the back, no hugs or kisses for sure. Two days ago he came over and gave me a kiss and a hug out of the clear blue. I cannot express enough what this meant to me. I have 3 other children that can't get enough of hugs and kisses, but coming from my 7 year old it just brought me to tears. The hugs have continued and he even told me that he loved me. The therapist had me convinced that he had a sensory deprivation disorder... until now. I cannot believe that until now I have not heard anything metioned in the news and that the medical professionals are so quick to dismiss claims against Singulair.
I am so thankful that I have found this website and for all of the people that have taken the time to include their experiences as it is evidence that there are serious problems when it comes to prescribing Singulair to children. I cannot help but to be saddened when I think of all the years I have lost to this with my son. All the time spent in frustration and tears over what I thought were serious behavior issues on his part. Not to say that I never expect any negative behavior out of a child, but certainly not like I have had to endure in the last years. The last few days have been amazing...I pray it continues. Shame on Merck for not being forthcoming and only keeping their bottom line in mind.

I have got to share my great news with anyone who will listen. My daughter has been Singulair free since Friday of last week. She has no idea that we are not giving her this pill at night and we haven't discussed any of our recent findings in front of her. In other words, she has no incentive to behave any differently than she ever has. The changes are so dramatic that at times it's hard for me to believe. On three different occasions today she made note of her positive change in mood (keep in mind she is 7). Right after school when she was going over some of her graded papers she pointed to a smiley face on her paper. She said, "Mommy, that's how I feel today." I replied, "That's great honey. Is there a reason why you are so happy today?" She stated, "I don't know why, I just am." Then a few hours later I overheard her talking to her younger brother at dinner say, "Will, I haven't cried at all today." Of course he didn't have much of a reply. Then at bedtime, she said, "This has been the best day ever!" These are all statements that quite honestly I have never heard her say before. It warms my heart to know that I do have a "normal" child in there. She's been on Singulair since she was 3, before she could verbalize many of her feelings. All we have known are negative, grumpy feelings and emotions.

But these are not the only changes we have noticed. I have had to wake her up for school the last two mornings in a row (hasn't happened since she began school). She has always been such a terrible sleeper and seems to never really get as much as she needs. She hasn't been so obessessive in the last two days about playing with her best friend. She actually asked if she could play cars with her younger brother instead of going to the park. She has eaten about half as much as she normally does. She has developed such a ferocious appetite that weight has become a huge problem. She has handled disappoints in stride when the same trigger would have totally set her off a few days ago. The list really does go on and on.

I can honestly say that the only thing that has changed is the absence of Singulair. I pray that I continue to discover more of my daughter's great qualities.

I have wondered so many times over the last few days, "What if I hadn't been listening to NPR?" I would have had no other reason to look into the matter further. All of our stories need to be told to the greater media. There are millions of children on this drug and based on this message board, millions of children sufferring negative side effects. Please join me in this crusade!

I was on Singulair for a while and it seems to really help my allergy symptoms. i was supposed to take it at night. I kept forgetting to take it and then w/o the intent to I stopped. After being off of it for a while, I just started taking it again. I made an effort to take it at bedtime. Every day I would wake up remembering the weirdest dreams you could ever imagine. My doctor recommended I take it in the morning. This seemed to help w/ the dreams. I do feel however that it doesn't help my allergies as much. I am going to be more vigilant w/ watching for side effects from it. I am a 38 year old woman.

My daughter is 20 years old and a chronic asthmatic with severe allergies. She has been on Singulair for 8 years. She has been complaining and in some instances begging her asthma doctor for a reason for her insomnia and restless sleep over the last several years. She takes other asthma and allergy medications. He told her to not take her Xopenex inhaler before bed, as that may be causing the problem, that didn't help at all (sometimes a Xopenex nebulizer treatment is needed for her at bedtime and during the night, during asthma flair-ups). Her doctor just switched her from Allegra (which she has been on since she was 10) to Zyrtec, which is helping with allergies, but not with the sleeplessness. She was taken off of Advair and put on Symbicort in September 2007, this made her asthma worse requiring Prednisone off -and -on since January. She is back on Advair and doing better, but the sleepless nights continue...

We are seriously contemplating taking her off of the Singulair. We aren't 100% certain this medication is causing her insomnia/sleeplessness. However, as she explains it..."If I could get one really good nights sleep, I would go off of the Singulair in a heartbeat". Our fear is that by going off of the Singulair that her asthma will worsen.

Everybody, thank you so much for this discussion board. My mother told me tonight that singulair was on the news. Then I googled and found this. Now I understand my son's behavior - he was so weepy over littlest things that he didn't before; outbursts; mood swings; extreme anger whoa! Now I feel like shit for being so hard on him. I never thought it was Singulair - I think he got on it around Sept of last year. I'm definitely finding another med as his allergies are pretty bad. He also uses Flo-Nase at bedtime.

I was on Singulair for few years and got off it cuz I noticed i had a honking big ball of phlegm in my throat every morning when i woke up and i had to hack it up every day. Now I'm on Advair 500 mg 2x a day and Flo-nase. I hardly use my blue puffer, only when I'm sick with cold or bronchitis. Even then, I wasn't as sick as I used to be.

My son is 12 years old and has been on Singulair for 6 years. He is constantly experiencing leg pains, headaches in the back of his head, stomach aches, nosebleeds, and a lot of forgetfulness. He is taking 5mg at bedtime. He is always not able to sleep, but once he finally falls asleep it is very hard to wake him in the mornings. I never would have thought that 1 pill a night would cause so much pain in my sons life. As of today He is OFF!!!!

My Child was taking only Singulair for several years for asthma and after going to a pediatric allergist, she was put on Pulmicort Respules, which is an Inhaled Corticosteroid. She was experiencing some anxiety and bad dreams, but she was also still having symptoms. Her nighttime awakenings are almost non-existent now and she is able to run and play like a normal child. She is also having no more anxiety! The doctor told us that these drugs control the inflammation in the lungs, and that's why kids have asthma attacks. All of these inhaled steroids are safe and tested in children, so I feel comfortable giving it to her every night before bedtime. The allergist told us that inhaled steroids alone will control all asthma and wheezing and there is no need to use Singulair. You may want to look into this type of medication instead of Singulair

I have a daughter who just turned 11 and has been on Singulair for 1 year. I can't say exactly when she turned into devil child, but she did. She went from fun loving, happy go lucky and VERY EASY GOING to a miserable, irritable, cranky girl. I've been using the must be her hormones phrase... Not saying that some of it is not her hormones but her behavior sometimes is beyond anything normal. From the minute she gets up in the morning till bedtime any little and I mean little incident can put her in a frenzy. I've been considering counseling for her until a family member asked me if she was on any meds and that maybe it was that. What a horrible mother I feel like that I never thought of that. I don't give my kids anything without looking it up and I never did with this one.. It has helped her so much . The last time I took her off in 2 days she was wheezing.. Well I'm going to try again because my whole family can not bear her mood swings anymore. I'm going to wean her off by using it every other day and eventually down to nothing, CAN'T WAIT.. I'm going to try something new although I'm not sure if it will help the asthma part, it's the neti pot. It's has an amazing success rate for sinus problems. I'll follow up in a couple of weeks to post how all is going.. Wish me luck...

My 2 yr old was prescribed Singulair yesterday for nasal allergies. He has taken Claritin and Zyrtec in the past with no side effects but they were not very effective on the allergies. I gave him his first dose of the Singulair last night at bedtime just as prescribed. He had a fitfully night, but I thought it might just be that it was keeping him awake. I didn't think about reading the side effects before I gave it to him. This morning he was irritable and did not want to stand up to get out of his crib. I left him with my husband while I went out for a short while and when I returned home found that he was still not standing or walking. We could tell that it was his left leg and then realized it was his left ankle specifically that was bothering him. I then decided to read the side effects in the packet and realized that muscle/joint pain is a serious side effect. His doctor told us to not give him any more and to come in to see them this afternoon. He is very irritable and lethargic some and just not himself - all of this after one pill. I'm just glad we realized it so soon. I will certainly not allow any of my kids to take this drug or any like it.

I have been taking Singulair for two years. Initially I noticed problems with sleeping the entire night. I also would wake with a terrible headache and I was irritable and wanting to actually punch the next dude that looked at me sideways ( I have been bodybuilding for 15 years and already have a ton of testosterone) ( I took the meds at bedtime) The last several months on Singulair I noticed a constricting of the throat and a sore throat. blurred vision and an upset stomach that has developed into what I believe is GERD. Since I have stopped the meds It was only 2 days before I became docile in mood, my vision is no longer blurred and my stomach is healing. I have lost 4 Lbs ( I have always weighed myself daily) I sleep the entire night and my throat is no longer constricted. I am sure for some people this medicine would not be a problem, but for me..as the Frenchman said in the movie "Along came Polly".."NO WAY JOSE!"

My 2 year old son was prescribed Singulair for eczema yesterday and gave him his first dose last night. His bedtime is at 8 and since he is two years old and fights sleep, it normally takes him 30 to 60 minutes to actually fall asleep. He was still awake at 10:30. He couldn't seem to wind down. I knew it was from the Singulair immediately. I woke up this morning and got the prescription literature to see if this is even prescribed for eczema. It didn't say. So I got on Singulair's ...... and nothing about eczema. I then searched ...... and found this website and I am completely blown away by everyone's stories. I think I will take the 30 bucks for next months prescription and buy a humidifier for the apartment and use some Cetaphil lotion. He didn't have breakouts this summer due to the humidity, so I will just make my apartment humid. The doctor not only prescribed Singulair, but also Clarinex. The pharmacy had to order it and I was supposed to pick it up today, but I am going to search the side effects for it first. I will probably just save my money and see what I can do with home remedies.

I just found this site and I decided to respond. I have been taking Singulair on and off for about 5 or 6 years. When I first started taking it, it seemed to help my asthma quite a bit. I didn't notice any side effects, but then again I was taking a few other meds that I thought might be a culprit. I hadn't taken the Singulair for about 6 or 8 months because everything was going good. About 2 months ago I began having a few flare ups, so I thought I would go back on the Singulair. Now I am 57 y/o and been on most of my meds for about 10 years or so. When I added in the 10 mg dose of Singulair before bedtime, I began to notice dramatic side effects. Along with the more vivid dreams, in the first few days I noticed when I awoke I was real tired. Now that is unusual because I have always been an early riser and ready to go. Some days I felt like I didn't want to get out of bed. As the days went by, I noticed that I was waking up a lot at night and had a constant "hissing" noise in my ears. The noise would last thru the first few hours of the day and subside. In the last week or so, I began to awake with horrible headaches. The headaches started in the back of my neck and migrated to the top front of my head. I am not a headache person, so these are very unusual.

I have also noticed small painful bumps on my scalp. There has been a noticable thinning of my hair as well. I'm not sure if it can be attributed to the Singulair or just being old!

I will be going off the Singulair as of today to see if all these symptoms disappear. I will post a response in a week or so.

I've only been on singulair for 6 days and it is now 4:23am. I just couldn't sleep tonight. I've been having the strangest dreams and I commented to my wife about them. We just laughed it off. Anyway, at this time of the morning, my EARS are "Hissing" so loudly, not ringing, however I do detect a slight pulsating tonal sound in my left ear, that I just couldn't sleep anymore. I've a history of Tinnitus but something has exacerbated my tinnitus dramatically, so much so it is keeping me awake. I think I'll be needing something to help me sleep now. Perhaps I will stay off the Singulair for now just to see if life returns to some kind of normalcy. Could it be a side effect of Singulair. I don't know but I felt like driving something through my head to stop all the loud noise. Has anyone else experienced elevated levels, or a new development of "Ringing in the Ears", commonly known as Tinnitus?

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!

My son is six years old and been on Singulair for 2 weeks, on the 3rd day he started complaining of stomach pain. That night he had a horrible nightmare and everyday since it has been something else it seems to get worse everyday. Sleepwalking uncontrollable rage that we have never seen before. He gets out of breath very easy and his comprehention is very bad since he has takin this drug. He is on day two of no Singulair and is still having trouble sleeping but the other effects are slowly ending thank god any parents thinking of this treatment for their child needs to do more research my doctor did not think it was the meds that it is just a normal child stage he is going through. (bull-h--t).

The only side effect I have experienced from Singulair has been severe throbbing headaches each morning (I take the Singulair at bedtime). I know it is the Singulair because the headaches became so intollerable at one point that I quit taking the Singulair and the headaches ceased. Of course, the Alveoli in my lungs again began to hold air when I stopped the medication. What is one to do - it was either headaches or pain and inability to breathe.

I took my 1st dose at bedtime 3 days ago. I woke up at 3:30 and was unable to really get back to sleep the rest of the night. The next day I took it at about 7:00pm to see if the "twitchies" were better. I still felt a litttle jacked up, but slept ok. However, I experienced some strange and severe itching on my legs and arms during the day after the 2nd dose. I actually had a bruise on my leg where I had 1 scratching attack(I have NEVER had anything like that before). I took my 3rd dose last night and slept ok, but I also took a single benedryl tab just in case for the itching. I had taken Zyrtec for years prior to this(without ANY problem except some initial fatigue the 1st week or 2). I have been dealing with allergies for years and am pretty tuned in to my system. I get allergy shots also. Years ago I tried 2 different "new" medications, Seldane and Hismanal(sp?), and had some strange side effects with those. I stopped taking both after a short time and several years later both were pulled from the market due to dangerous side effects. I am going to stop the Singular today and go back to Zyrtec until I get back to the allergist. After reading all the postings I am concerned about my 15 yr. old daughter who has been on it for about 6 weeks. I am going to reevalute her treatment.

I'm 45 (male) and never had asthma until a year ago-- it came on after a severe bout with bronchitis. The doc gave me Prednisone for a week, I also took Advair, Flonase, Aciphex (a stomach pill), and Singulair. After a few months, the asthma seemed to be gone, but the doc had me stay on Singulair (one per day, at night before bedtime) to be sure it didn't return.

Before the asthma and Singulair, I had stomach problems (diagnosed as gastritis) and some stiffness in my lower back. But for the past year, my stomach has been AWFUL-- even the meds don't help. And the stiffness has been really bad: I would have to stretch my hips, legs and feet, and stay in the hot shower as long as possible. I even had frequent bouts of diarrhea, which I attributed to the Aciphex-- but now I'm thinking it might have been the Singulair.

I discovered this site a few days ago and stopped the Singulair. I THINK my stomach is getting a little better, and some flexibility has returned. Of course, my nose has started running and my breathing isn't the greatest--but I'd be willing to deal with it if my stomach and muscles feel better.

IS IT POSSIBLE MY STOMACH PROBLEMS AND STIFF MUSCLES/JOINTS HAVE BEEN EXACERBATED BY SINGULAIR? If you've had this problem, please post a reply. How long will it take for the side effects to disappear?

Our doctor prescribed Singulair for our 4 year old as a preventative measure for bronchitis this past Friday (July 7th). That night, she was up every 2 to 3 hours saying that she's scared and that her legs hurt. She has slept through the night since she was 6 weeks old, so this was shocking to us. We just thought that because she was sick she wasn't sleeping well...even though other times she's sick this didn't happen.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday went by and each night she woke every few hours...crying and crying. She was dreading bedtime (this was also strange). On Tuesday, I found this site and read all the stories....and many of them were similar to our situation. My wife and I talked about it and we decided to take our daughter back to the doctor on Wednesday to let her know that we'd like her to try an alternative medication because of her reactions to her meds. She listened to her lungs and said just to stop the meds...she sounds ok now.

Wednesday night...still woke up....but fewer times. Last night...slept from 8pm to 8am!!! Was in a great mood, no talking about nightmares or achey legs!!

Beware of this medication....we will not be using it for our little girl ever again!!! Thanks to eveyone who shared their story.

My 10 year old son has asthma. He has been on everything from oral steriods, zyrtec, advair, nebulizer, and singulair. Oh, and an inhaler on occasion. His asthma has improved and he's down to just the singulair at bedtime. However I have become extremely concerned over his weight gain since age 7. Why don't they tell the doctors that this drug does indeed put on the weight????? My son is very active. It makes me sad to think that he has become son overweight from a drug that I have kept him on so long. Tonight was his last pill!!!!! I will keep you all posted. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

My daughter is 10 and was put on this drug for allergies and to be taken once a night at bedtime. She has been acting very strange and withdrawn for the last month or so and then this past Thursday night, she started hollering for me and her right arm was shaking uncontrollably and she was very startled and disoriented. She could not catch her breath, she felt faint and sick. After putting my daughter thru IVS, and MRI of the brain and a EEG of the brain waves. A neorologist diagnosed my daughter with partial seizure and said she definitely had a seizure. I found this out on Friday night after lengthy tests and then thrown to me medicine for seizures that my daughter may have to take the rest of her life. I can not help but think this is caused from Singulair and reading their side effects... If you have had any of these symptoms please let me know so we can together share this and find out more. I wonder if there is a lawsuit pending this ? I will be checking into this.

My wife began taking Singulair April 2005 because of allergies (couging with some spitting) and by June when we returned to see the Dr. she was fine but her Dr. wanted to keep her on Singulair. The first of August she began having serious coughing and spitting (mostly at night) and it continues. The x-rays and ct scans show her lungs are okay. My question/concern is the Singulair ad on TV mentions a side effect of upper respitory infection and when I brought this up to the Dr. it was ignored. My wife does pretty well during the day but takes her Singulair at bedtime and either the laying down or the Singulair is causing her to wake up every 2 -3 hours coughing and spitting.

I posted on here a few days ago see (Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:18:19 -0500 by Guest, #12792). I stopped taking Singulair. Today was my 3rd day off of it. I am fine during the day, but needed my Proventil inhaler one of the nights. I am starting to take Claritin before bedtime. Maybe that will help the nights. I wanted to comment on how different I feel since stopping the Singulair. The biggest change is in my temperament. I read somewhere that it would stay in my system for approx. 5 days, but I already feel different. I am not as angry, irritable or impatient. It is an extreme difference after only 3 days. I am also not as tired. The overall achey body feeling is gone, however, my fingers still hurt on one of my hands. I think that is starting to improve too. I just wanted to let everyone know that this drug really does affect your personality. Also, the strange vibrating sound from my chest/nose is gone. I'll see how it goes.

I can tell you for a fact that this drug does effect people in a horrible way! My daughter who is 3 years old started taking it 8 days ago and as off day 2 she started to get super agitated, angry, whinny and sad! As most of you have said she used to be happy and loving all the time. She also is now scared at night and we used to just say bed time and she would go, now it is a fight. After our bedtime fight last night I started to wonder what has changed then I got to thinking about Singulair the only difference in her day to day life, so I decided to go online and check. I starting reading on several sites and they all are the same. I also starting taking singulair 3 years ago right after the birth of my first child. My hips always hurt I am always cranky I can't lose the weight from that pregnancy or my next pregnancy. I have been caulking it up to lack of sleep with the babies. Now, I just know for sure that it is this Drug. I am scared to stop it, I will be calling my Dr monday to find out what is the safest way to stop and I will be telling everyone I know to stop or never use this drug. This is so scary!!!!