Singulair and tantrums

After beginning Singulair, my daughter (age 6 at the time) had tantrums unlike she had ever had (completely inconsolable), scary dreams with guns and knives, that people were chasing and killing her; complained of leg pains, stomach pains with nausea, headaches, hearing bells (I couldn't hear them), itching, and said she wished she could be dead; that if she had a gun she would kill herself. I attributed it to being adopted, and got her into therapy. The fearfulness at night has not stopped, and at times she is still aggressive with me. I am taking her off the Singulair today! She is now 7. I feel so guilty, and so angry at her pediatrician who treated me like I was a hysterical mother when I called him about these symptoms showing up over a year ago!!

Our son, who is now 6 was prescribed Singulair at the age of 3 due to asthma/allergies. He was prescribed this by an ENT/Allergist. I thought our sons mood swings were due to the fact that we were expecting another child. He was always so happy/loving and playful. When the baby arrived 2 months later, his behavior worsened. Again, I put it on the new baby sister in the house. His moods/anger/outbursts increased. He hit, threw things etc. I told the doc about this and he said it was due to his enlarged tonsils, and they were then removed. Well needless to say, his behavior did not change because he was still on the Singulair. I mentioned the possible side effects to his pediatrician and she said it was a possibility, but to keep him on it because he needed it. Well, 3 years later, in March of this year I took him to an allergist that I had seen years ago. He immediately took him off the singulair (and all inhalers). His moods seemed to brighten a bit, but not they are worsening again. Is it possible for the Singulair to have long term damaging effects. I understand kids have tantrums, etc. Kids are kids, I get that. But he punches, kicks, screams, cries etc. My husband are at a loss. We don't know what to do. Oh, and he is now on Veramyst as needed (march-june, Aug-Oct.). Has anyone else experienced long term effects due to Singulair?

Hi, my name is M. I just got up with my son Jo Jo as usual about 2:00 pm. Nightmares--severe. Leg and foot pain. In fact I thought he was having restless leg syndrome and the doctors had him tested for seizures. His moods are horrible. Tantrums have been out of this world. After two years of sleep deprivation for both of us, something said look at side effects of Singulair. Actually, I believe that something was God because as I massaged my son's legs I prayed. I came to the computer, found his website and saw my son's symptoms written out clear as day. We are done with Singulair. Forever. I just walked back to the room and apologized to my sleeping son. I can not tell how horrible I feel as a parent for my child to have suffered so. I also can not begin to describe the relief I feel right now. My son has enough problems without medication causing him to suffer. I have suffered as well. As a single parent I have to work but I am often sleepwalking through my days. Thank God for all of you who posted. You have saved my son's health and quality of life. And mine. Thank God!

My son was on singulair for most of his infancy (11 mos- 22 mos old) we took him off of it when I started staying home with him. He was in daycare and was having breathing issues. We would give him the singulair and Zyrtec every morning. He became a very despondent baby. He would spend the ENTIRE day in the rocking chair at the daycare. After months and months of the teachers telling me this we decided it was best I stay home with him. He came off of the singulair and things got so much better for a while, he began to interact with us and others, not fearful anymore, and slept through the night. However other things have grown to be worse, as he has been developing...every day he seems more difficult to deal with. Now, 5, he is angry, fits of tantrums and rage, can't cope with his emotions, he actually kicked me today during one of these fits. He has been peeing in his room when he is sent there because he has been punished for one of these outbursts. What are the long term after effects of Singlair? Has anyone had this experience? Could the singulair have been given to him too early and now caused some sort of permanent nero or psychiatric condition? PLEASE ADVISE!!!! This Mom is really frightened.

My daughter is a 4 year old child started on Singulair after she was unable to tolerate Zyrtec. For the first few days her allergies seemed better and we were encouraged by her improved allergy symptoms (allergies to poplar trees, grass, and lambs weed manifest as headaches, itching (usually of the extremities), and stomach aches). However, after 2 days her behavior became increasingly erratic. She was emotional, tantrum prone, irritable, anxious, and had difficulty sleeping although she appeared and said she was exhausted/tired. After several weeks on Singulair, we stopped the medication to determine if it was causing the behavioral and sleep problems. The symptoms stopped after discontinuing Singulair and she went back to her usual happy, well behaved self. After being off of it for several weeks we decided to try it again due to her allergies flaring up and wanting to be sure it was the Singulair causing the behavioral problems (because for all of its negatives, the greatest positive about Singulair is that it definitely helps her allergy symptoms). Unfortunately, the irritability, anxiousness, tiredness, tantrums and insomnia returned. We tried giving it to her at different times during the day but the symptoms were still present (although she slept a little better when we gave it to her in the morning). We also tried cutting the dose in half and giving it to her around noon. Decreasing the dose did help with the symptoms to some degree, but they were still bad enough to outweigh the benefits of taking the drug. As a nurse, I love Singulair for the relief it provides allergy sufferers...unfortunately for my daughter, the side effects outweigh the benefits. Given the rates of ADD, ADHD, and other behavioral problems diagnosed in children nowadays, I thought it pertinent to report these symptoms present in my daughter that are solely caused taking this medication.

I just wanted to post an update.

I took my son off singulair over a year ago. He was on since he was 2 yrs old and had started with chronic headaches at about 10 yrs old. He also had tantrums(I don't know how else to describe it), was upset and sad and basically disliked himself. He cried all the time. I had always thought it was just him. These symptom had come on slowly over the years.

The first week off this med, it was like he was freaking out and everything was 100x worse. But the headaches almost immediately disappeared.

Other parents were wondering how long it took for his personality to change.or if the kids would remain that way.

It took quite a long time. It was worse for weeks after we took him off. Then it slowly started to improve.

In the last 6-8 months, it's like living with a different child. There's no crying, he's happy, there's no tantrums anymore. Gets a headache maybe once a month instead of daily.

He still has allergies, he still has asthma. But for the first time in years he seems normal. I love that word, normal.

I have been really stressed out about the behavior of my 5 year old son. He is having uncontrollable tantrums, crying spells, aggressive behavior towards me, his dad and his 2 year old brother. He does fine at school according to the teacher. So I thought it was our structure at home. We has a very well kept schedule that we don't change very much even on the weekends. So in the last month it has gotten worse including bed wetting, restlessness, and crying episodes for 20 minutes.
My sister told me about a news piece that she saw about negative side effects of Singulair in children. So here I am on this blog. I have now had an AHA moment. This is the problem. I will be calling the pediatrician TODAY. Now I know what's going on. Thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences. I will post again with an update.

It seems most people on here are blaming their "side effects" on the medicine. Could you quite possibly have health issues anyway? what about those people that don't take Singulair and have the exact same symptoms? Is it because they are THINKING about it?
It's one thing to be informed about medication. It's another to go overboard.

I have a grandson who is on singulair since he would walk. He is now 5 years old. He has trouble in school, heat racing, out of control tantrums, biting and hiting in daycare. When he is not taking this medicine he is a different child. Parents are doing what ever the physicians order. Please stop prescribing medicines just for a runny nose, it is not worth the side effects.

the pediatrician prescribed singular for my dd when she was 12yrs old for her asthma. she described it as being safe. that same year dd started having problems in school and seemed depressed. I talked to the doctor about it thinking maybe it had something to do with her adhd medication. the doctor thought maybe it was just normal teen behavior and dd trying to adjust. eventually we took dd to a therapist and things seemed to get a little better. then dd started complaining about stomach pains, she talked about strange dreams at night and would wake up in the middle of the night. Then the tantrums started, wild out of control tantrums. she would scream, throw things, destroy things, she talked about wanting to die, how she hated her life. again I went back to the doctor her adhd medication was adjusted and I also got her back into therapy. therapy was helpful but we continued to deal with the wild tantrums. we kept trying to seek help and answers but to no avail. we were beginning to think dd was suffering from a mental illness. the doctor told us to keep an eye on it and the next step would be maybe putting her on more medication. In the meantime dd became anxious, she had an anxiety attack at school, she would get in arguments with her friends and become very irrational, she continued to be angry at home, she destroyed things in her room and punched a hole in the wall. When I would look in her eye she had the look of a wild animal. my doctor began to think it was merely teen rebellion and we needed to get tougher with her. Never did it ever cross my mind that it could be something with singular till I heard about the study on the news then it all clicked. before singular my dd was an above average student who was liked by teachers and students alike. teachers talked about how well behaved she was and she was a leader. she was very active in various activities at school. Now she has become nervous and suffers from anxiety attacks, she has out of control tantrums and anger. her friends frequently avoid her or her calls because she has become so moody and angry. she frequently complains that her stomach hurts and feels like she's going to be sick. she screams and talks about wanting to die and that we don't love her. till today I had considered this drug to be safe and very useful in controlling her asthma but after doing more research i'm beginning to wonder if it's worth the risk.

My 4 year old son started taking singulair when he was two. I don't think I picked up on his behavior change right away b/c I thought that he was just entering the "terrible two's". But over time, his allergist added on Nasonex (I know the docs say that it doesn't cause side-effects b/c it's a nasal spray, but I don't buy that...it's a steroid, plain and simple) and more recently zyrtec was added on for his hives. Well, the zyrtec was the straw that broke the camel's back. I mean, he has been a real "handful" since the singulair, but after zyrtec was added 5 months ago - let's just say he was completely out of my control. His meltdowns were so bad that I couldn't go ANYWHERE with him. I either got a sitter or just didn't go anywhere. He became aggressive, defiant, emotional, unhappy. And to top it off he started to have serious "autistic-like" self-stimulatory behaviors (grinding teeth, squinting eyes shut, flapping his hands, punching himself...). At this point my life had become a complete nightmare, and my poor 10 month old son was getting NO attention b/c my 4 year old was so out of control and aggressive. I was afraid for the baby's safety...oh, I could go on all night. This medication has impacted my marriage, my finances, my sanity. Shortly after he started Singulair I had to go on an antidepressant b/c it too so much out of me just to be his mommy. Anyway, a week ago I had him scheduled for a psych evaluation (thought for sure we were going to walk away with either autism or bipolar diagnosis), but two days before I decided to look up the meds he is on and BINGO! All of these posts sound like what we have been going through. I stopped all of his meds that night, cold-turkey, and he has been the most pleasant little boy I have ever met!! My husband and I have fallen in love with him over the past week - we had no idea he was such a sweet child.

Now, while I'm ecstatic that we have found the answer to our nightmare, I also feel SO STINKIN' ANGRY! We lost out on 2 years with our sweet boy, there were times when we raised our voices at him when he just couldn't help himself - he was suffering inside!! When I went to talk to the allergist about my findings this past week, he said, "well, maybe he just had a good day. I'd like to see what happens if he goes off all his meds for a week". Well, there you have it, he has been off for one week and he's an absolute angel. He has an amazing heart and is so caring!!!

Singulair is awful (and so is zyrtec). Please don't give this drug to your children. Research other alternatives (I am giving my son Nordic Naturals Fish Oil, Culturelle probiotics, vitamin c, and am changing his diet - increased magnesium and decreased dairy. I came up with this after hours of research...).

There is a woman on this site whose daughter committed suicide after 3 years on Singulair. This is no joke and the FDA needs to get with it.

BTW, I used to date a Singulair rep (I knew there was something I didn't like about that guy:)

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.

So happy to find this site. I never noticed My son never had an eye tick until last month, ironically we started giving him Singular on a daily basis about the same time. My son just turned two and is has also been waking up screaming 3 times every night. Have others reported this same problem...also he is on Pulmicort too, have you read that it is linked to Glaucoma and Cataracts? Do you think that this could be causing the tick? Please HELP! I want a parent's opinion before bringing this up to the doctor...they are so quick to jump to more drugs it makes me sick! Thank you! Any other children with eye "ticks" like really quick consecutive blinks?

My son is almost 5 now and has severe food and inhalant allergies, along with sever asthma. When he was 3 he was hospitalized for 4 days because of his asthma. I have been warned that only 1% of asthmatics will ever be hospitalized, so I've made sure he stays on all his meds. He has been on Singular ever since he was 15 months old. At first it was a God send. Everyday was a constant challenged, fussy, icthy red eyes, constant flow of mucous and wheezing. I would have to pin him down 6 times a day with the inhaler, but when Singular came "poof" it was like magic. He was on Singular when he was hospitalized and is now on 3 meds; Zrytec, Singular and Q-var all given to him everyday. Lately we have had some major issues come up for him. I think I have the next J. D. living with me. NO FOR REAL. My next step is a shrink. You might think I'm mean for saying it, but I don't know how else to describe it. When I was driving he asked for some gum, because I wouldn't let him pick out his own piece, he got out of his car seat and started hitting me over and over again, pulled my hair and tried to "break my arm" as he put it. I had to pull over and I couldn't get him to calm down he kept slapping me in the face and kicking me not only was I embarrassed, but it hurt, I was crying. I have finally come here trying to see if other children, who are on Singular, have had similar episodes. He is a very good boy most of the time and aggression is a hit and miss. I don't know what to do.

My son is 5 years old and has been on Sigulair since he was probably 2 years old. I never really thought anything of his behavior until recently. I took him to the doctor because he would not stop sniffing and said his nose felt stuffed up. The Dr. said his nose was completely clear. I asked her about the Singulair and she said I was the 2nd one this week whose child had recently developed a tic and that the other child was also on Singulair. She said she would call the Drug Rep. and let me know. By the time I got home she had called and I called her back. She said that tics occurred in a very small percentage of children taking singulair and to go ahead a stop taking it. I have also experienced severe behavioral problems ( tantrums unlike anything I have ever seen, telling myself and and my husband that he hates us, he tells us that he is stupid and that he doesn't love himself, he says he will cut his Dad's head off and that he wants us to go to jail.) There is more but just talking about for the first time, I am so upset that I never put 2&2 together. He has also had the leg pains and stomach pains. Everything I have read, fits my 5 year old to a"T". I am in awe over all of this. Today is his first day not taking it and I am looking forward to seeing some changes in him. Does anybody know if there are any long-term affects? Thank you to everyone who is open enough to talk about things and get information out there for people like me . I will never give my child Singulair again. Thank you so much

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.

I just read an article dated 9/1/08 that stated that the American Lung Association just cleared Singulair as causing depression and suicide. They had researchers study the results from the original test trials because they are supposedly more accurate than after market reports. The article is at ******. I cried when I read this report. My now 8 year old daughter has been on this medication for mild asthma since she was 4. We have thought the stomach aches and tantrums were related to moving to a new town around the time she started taking singulair. But, 3 months ago, she all of a sudden started having depression, ocd about germs, afraid she might hurt herself and then depression and suicidal thoughts. She has been off meds for 8 weeks and still has some problems with thinking she wants to hurt herself and feeling down. She is normally very happy and our family is happy and normal, but dealing with this is difficult. How long does it take to get out of their system?

MY 4 YR OLD SON HAS BEEN ON SINGULAIR NOW FOR ABOUT A YEAR, THE PAST FEW MOS HE HAS BEEN WAKING AT NIGHT SCREAMING IN PAINS SAYING HIS LEGS HURT. HIS BEHAVIOR HAS ALSO CHANGED, HE HAS TANTRUMS AND VERY MAD. I AM THINKING OF TAKING HIM OFF THE MED. IF ANYONE HAS SIMILAR ISSUES PLEASE EMAIL ME!!

THANK YOU

JODI!

*******

PRAISE GOD for all of the stories shared on this site. And I've only read page one. My husband called me back today to say that he "googled" Singulair and found some interesting things (to say the least). While we were on the phone, my three-year-old was in the throes of another meltdown, kicking me, hitting me, throwing whatever he could get his hands on. My older two boys, 8 and 12, were ordered, once again, to lock themselves in their rooms to avoid being hurt by him. He will throw stuff, bite, hit, kick, and, at times, spit on us. This disturbing behavior is rather constant lately. He is like a mad man. Very scary.

Caleb has been on Singulair since about age 1, when he was diagnosed with chronic sinusitis and allergic rhinitis. Unfortunately, we initially equated his rages with the onset of "terrible two's" and dismissed his behavior to a chorus of "oh, he's just a boy!" My husband felt, at times, that I was just not disciplining him properly. I intuitively knew, having raised two other boys, that this behavior was abnormal, even for severe tantrums. We received a variety of suggestions from his pediatrician, caregivers, and grandparents, all to no avail. We have several calm days but things always deteriorate back to insanity. He is VERY unpredictable.

Last Thanksgiving, Caleb (age 3) was kicked out of his daycare setting for biting and hitting. Once I witnessed him run as fast as he could into a group of playing children, falling on them, kicking them. He would walk up to sweet little girls half his size and push them down as hard as he could. It was a nightmare. My husband had to take 3 weeks of leave to stay home with him while we prayed and searched for new care. We had him evaluated and he was staffed into the "developmentally delayed" program in our school district (for poor adaptive skills and personal/social behaviors). We recently had his tonsils removed, hoping that some of the sinusitis symptoms and behaviors would improve. They really haven't. This past week we have been looking into the Feingold diet. We have been PRAYING for answers. The last time we spoke with his developmental neurologist, he recommended a trial of Risperdol (sp?). We feel like more meds would be like a band-aid, not a solution. But his rage is becoming unbearable.

So, that brings us to today. I was so moved by your accounts. Unlike so many of you, we don't have much of a "before" to go by. But his "after" sounds VERY much like what you have all described. It's probably the pure rage that I see on his face that is the scariest part. And at the same time he seems desperate and vulnerable. He truly seems to snap. If we had pool chairs, I can just picture him throwing them (citing another post :).

We are going to throw the Singulair away. He will never, ever have it again. Even if this isn't the cause of his problems, I certainly don't want to exacerbate any behaviors with this toxic medicine. I will post again just to let anyone who's interested know if this changes his behavior. I am praying that my entry will help someone else, just as all the other postings have helped me. I have renewed hope.

I have copied many of your comments to a Word document. I will be sharing it with a high ranking officer at the medical clinic/hospital on Keesler Air Force Base. I hope that he will discuss this with his staff and that perhaps we can at least make a difference here. I, too, will be filing a report with the FDA. I can only pray that this medicine has not permanently altered his developing brain.

My three year old son has been off Singulair for @4 weeks now. He still is having these crying episodes, though not as long, often or severe as before, but to the point that still has my husband and I going nuts!! Has any one taken there child back to the doctor's to have them evaluated for these symptoms? If so were they any help.
Thanks for everyone posting their stories, this site has really helped!

Anyone scroll back to 2003? I wish I had searched for this site back then. 8 year old son off 4 weeks now and doing great! No more "I hate my Life, Life sucks, I wish I was dead, etc." No more 2 hour tantrums. They last about 30 seconds now. Still worried about long term effects...ingrained patterns of behavior due to years of agitation, stress on the immune system, etc. My son had about every side effect listed on this site. I never suspected the drug.

I'm an 18 year old male and I've been taking Singulair for years; I don't even remember when I started taking it. I've had chronic sinusitis my whole life, and use a Singulair 10mg/ Allegra 180mg combo to control it. I never gave it a second thought. From my adolescent years on, I've been able to sleep (if undisturbed) for 15, 16+ hours a night, and have always felt like I was in a fog during everyday life. Getting out of bed has always been a terrible problem for me.

Throughout high school, I became progressively more depressed and apathetic toward school work, to the point where I dropped a number of classes my junior year. Got put on Prozac for a while, it helped a great deal with the depression, and seemed to give me enough energy to get through the week. I discontinued it after a year or so, everything was going okay (aside from mood swings and tiredness- explained away as symptoms of my age/hormones/going to bed too late), and then I went to college.

I had a mild depression that I think most people get upon leaving home for the first time, but the real problem was anxiety; I had a number of anxiety attacks, and decided to transfer to a school closer to home. I started Celexa and therapy- the celexa seems to take the edge off, but I fear its making me even more tired than before.

I've just heard about the whole Singulair controversy, and I am not taking it from here on out. I really hope that this whole ordeal was brought on primarily by the Singulair. After a month or two, I'll repost to report whether the symptoms went away.

I discovered this site last Wednesday morning - without taking the time to list all of the grief I felt reading through the pediatric postings, I will briefly note my 4 year old daughter has been on Singulair for 2 years now. What I now realize is all the behavior issues, night screaming, etc. are so easily dismissed as stages of a toddler. She has suffered (as well as our family) every symptom and behavior listed by parents on this site with the exception of leg cramps.

Our entire family can see the dramatic results since taking her last pill last Tuesday night. The melt downs and tantrums are all but over, she even commented "hey, I listened right away" on the second day without Singulair. She is still having night terrors - I call them that because they are in no way a dream or nightmare, but rather agonizing moments that break our hearts to hear. I hope those will soon go away as well so her sleep pattern results in a restful night.

Am I angry that we have all suffered for 2 years only to find we have been basically poisoning her? Am I angry that for the 2 years her dad and I have sunk pretty low, feeling inadequate as a parent to teach and discipline our child? Am I angry that after 20 years of marriage, raising a great 16 year old in the midst of all this, we were to the point of the ADD, bipolar, etc. theory that would have been misdiagnosed? Heck no, we are all so thankful to have come across this site and are so giddy and excited to be happy again.

What I am angry about is this - when I called our pediatrician last Wednesday and relayed what I had seen on the Merck website for side effects added in recent months she had not heard this information and asked where I saw it. At that point I had not seen this site. I asked her how is it the well dressed pharmaceutical reps come in with doughnuts, exotic trips, etc. to market a drug with "ABC" treatments and "XYZ" side effects, continue to market the drug and never update the doctors when original selling points are altered - ie; new side effects.

The FDA website is troubling for two reasons: Merck is in charge of their own investigation regarding recent complaints and the FDA expects this to take 9 months. Gee, who gets to investigate themself? Secondly, in February the site notes the FDA and Merck are trying to find the best way to communicate the concerns being investigated to prescribes and patients. HELLO - we live in a world of real time, instant communication methods, two examples being the United States Postal Service and an internet connection.

Today is April 30 - a full two months after "trying to decide how to pass this information on" and my doctor, nor my pharmacist have received any information. Apparantly since we missed the story and coverage on Dateline we are out of luck.

I plan to start from ground zero to get our voices heard to change the way, or the law if you will, to implement an immediate communication link between the FDA and prescribes when an investigation such as this has been initiated. I realize Singulair has most likely benefited more humans than it has destroyed while on the drug and the FDA would have to clearly not communicate "panic". However, when a drug is used for pediatric treatments we need information quickly to assess on behalf of our children. In my case, since my daughter had been on the drug since 2 years old, I do not know what her "normal behavior" should be as that is the age they start to develop and show personality. Additionally, when enclosed prescribing information is updated with a prescription -MARK IT IN RED, "UPDATED INFORMATION". I read every ounce of information that accompanies a new prescription for any family member. I would NOT, however read the information every 30 days for an ongoing, long term prescription over the course of 2 years.

I am looking for anyone that may have started contact with a congressional representative or otherwise to change the communication to our doctors. Please note - I am in no way interested in any legal action regarding Singulair and our nightmare. We are moving forward and do not wish to live the nightmare one moment more. I simply want to see our doctors and pharmacists have vital information as it happens.

Thank you to all for sharing your experiences - I truly believe it is changing lives and making a difference. I am personally telling everyone I know about what is happening with our child and all of yours. Andy by the way, by telling one of my long time friends our amazing discovery, she realized she had been suffering from depression for some time and chalked it up to various things going on in her life. She had her last Singulair last week and feels tremendous! So keep the word going!

Is there a potential explanation for the adverse psychiatric side effects of montelukast?

In my opinion, there are at least some very good clues based upon the work of the Chinese researchers.

A 2006 report indicated that they had localized (meaning found it was there) the CystLT1 receptor (same as the receptor that montelukast
Singulair blocks) in the neurons of the brain tissue of rats. In order to do that, they injected rat brain's with NMDA to cause a chemically induced state of excitotoxicity. Excitotoxicity is a common factor in Central Nervous System disease. They concluded that both 5-LOX and CystLT1 were upregulated by the excitotoxicity that they artificially created
with the NMDA. Therefore, there would be a potential link between neuron activity and CystLT1. Nerve cells are damaged by excitotoxicity. These researchers used NMDA to cause nerve damage which caused the CystLT1 to show up. NMDA was often used in human behavior studies to cause brain damage. They would then try to observe whether behavior was compromised to conclude what areas of the brain determined what behavioral response.

So I was thinking about the Chinese researchers as I was reading other posts. One post interested me particularly regarding the mother who described behavior that seemed like hypoglycemics when their snack doesn't arrive on time. So a light bulb went on. Glutamate, another excitotoxin, can build up in the brain to a level that is damaging if humans become excessively hypoglycemic. If glutamate concentration around the synaptic cleft reaches too high a level then neurons die. Clinically, it really does seem that many people experience things that sound like the effects of hypoglycemia. It could be only a coincidence. But then again, maybe not.

The Chinese researchers found the CystLT1 receptor in the rat brain neuron after brain damage. They found the CystLT1 receptor in the normal human brain in the microvascular endothelial cells and in neuron and glial-appearing cells in brain trauma or tumors.

What role does the CystLT1 play in brain function? If it exists in brain tissue, we can assume that it does have a function. If it plays a role in preventing or repairing neuron damage due to excitotoxins, then there would be a very direct link between Singulair and adverse psychiatric side effects.

http://www.chinaphar.com/1671-4083/27/1526.htm

The bottom line is that Merck owes people who take Singulair further research regarding it's effect on the brain.

I've never written on a blog in my life, and now that I've just read this, my stomach is doing flip flops and my blood is runnung cold. I have an 11 year old son and a 9 year old daughter. They have both been on singulair for quite a few years. My son has been on ADHD meds now since about a year and a half after starting Singulair because we tried to avoid them. Every few weeks he tells me he has this empty feeling inside him that makes him really sad and he doesn't know what it is. It just feels empty. I'll usually read with him or play a game or walk our dog with him to help him feel better.
As for my daughter, she exhibits all of the symptoms I have read about. She talks about life being terrible( trust me, she has it pretty good), she has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, OCD and Tourette Syndrome. Every psychiatric medication we have tried has made her worse. She was always a confident, outgoing little girl, and then she just changed. She's had stomach aches, which the docs always thought were in her head. She gets headaches. She is extremely sensitive, won't let me even brush her hair or touch her. She has extreme mood swings and gets upset over the most miniscule things, then writes about them, even saying she realizes her anger was too much for what the situation was! I will stop Singulair immediately and see what happens. What a miracle it would be if all of their symptoms disappeared.

i posted late last week regarding my 4 year old son who had been on singulair for about a month, two weeks steadily. he had turned into an aggressive, whining child who was getting upset over every little thing. he was back to throwing tantrums like a 2 year old and not listening at all. he had his last dose of singulair four nights ago. i am happy to report that he seems to be back to his normal self both at home and at daycare! i am so glad i found this site or he may still be on it today with me just assuming he was going through some sort of phase. it's unfortunate that the medical professionals in the U.S. don't seem to be taking this situation seriously, so we need to stand up for ourselves and our children. keep the information coming, they can't ignore this forever!

Ok I haven't been following along for several days so I may have missed some info. But what I'm wanting to know is if anyone out there has had the their child off singular for several months and had the attitude problem get worse rather than better. I don't know what is going on with my son but he has been off the meds for almost 7 months and within the last month turned very mean and ill-tempered. We would get this reaction sometimes while he was on the medicine but now it's 10X worse. Could be totally unrelated, but I thought I'd through it out there just to see.

My son is three and a half and has been taking singulair for a little over two years. But only when his seasonal asthma flares up or when I know it is that time of year that he has problems. While taking singulair he has always complained of headaches, stomach and leg pains, and of course it never occured to me that it could be a perscribed medication. However after hearing the affect it had on another little girl and that leading me to research it to find all of these postings from other parents. What really brought on the investigation is the last week. My sweet little boy turned into a monster. He kicked, hit, screamed, pinched, bit, scratched or anything he could do to physically hurt you. We were all freaked out by this because he is such a sweet, gentle little boy, one of his teachers made every excuse she could think of. Because this was not in his character at all, then of he did it to her. She described it as a switch going off inside him. I believe he was also hallucinating, he told me someone told him to do it. This is by far the most scary thing I have ever been through and will never give my son singulair again. Further more I am going to pass this information along to all my friends and family and hope and pray that it makes is to everyone so this madness this perscription medication causes.

My daughter had an appointment with a gastrointestinal doctor this morning because of her stomach problems. (She has been off of Singulair 10 days now and ALL symptoms- leg pains, abdominal pain, dizziness, sensitivity to light, severe mood swings, depression, anxiety, severe tantrums have all vanished) We kept the appointment with GI because our physician advised us to. He found it hard to believe that Singulair could be the cause of all of her symptoms. Well the GI also found it hard to believe that Singulair was the cause but said, "The proof is in the pudding." I have filed a complaint with the FDA on medwatch.com. It was very easy. I have also asked the doctor to file one as well. I also gave the doctor a printout of the studies done. Hopefully with more and more people filing complaints the FDA will act quickly. There is so much indisputable evidence regarding adverse reactions. It is unbelievable how many stories sound just alike. So many children have lost years of their life due to this drug. Parents have spent so much time and money trying to figure out what is "wrong" with their child. It is a shame so many have been incorrectly labeled all because of a drug they were taking!!

Sorry guys. The post below is mine and I left out a critical part of the entry. My three year old daughter was put on Allegra (along with the Singulair and Nasonex) in mid-March which is when her sleeping patterns changed. I've researched the side-effects of Allegra and I can't find sleeplessness anywhere. Therefore, maybe it's the combination of the Singulair and Allegra causing the problem. Does anyone else have a small child on this combination of meds. that is experiencing similar problems?

Well, it has been 11 days since my 8 year old daughter has been off Singulair and what a difference! The tantrums and anger are gone. She is sleeping peacefully through the night. She says her stomach no longer hurts. She also said (like a previous poster) that she feels "lighter". I didn't know what she meant by that until I saw someone else say the same thing. She completes her homework quickly and without errors. She just seems "clearer" in her brain and so HAPPY! It saddens me to think what I did to her for so many years.

Hi All! So glad to read of all the "happiness" since off of singulair. My 2 sons and I are off for a week now and what a difference. My 6 year old is back to his old self. He is much happier and is laughing a lot and not throwing angry tantrums. My 8 year old feels much better as well. He is much calmer and has had only one outburst in a week compared to daily. I can't wait to see if he can come off of ADHD meds too. I feel much more laid back. I thought my mood swings were hormonal but since I have had a hysterectomy, I thought they should subside. My estrogen level seems good but I just thought I was being female! I can tell a difference now and I feel better. I am getting along with just my asmanex for now. I wonder if the singulair really even helped me at all. I had a little tightness the first few days but now I feel just like I did on the singulair. To me this med is just not worth the risk. We have no family history of ADHD or depression so I wondered why my boys had the thoughts and symptoms they did. Singulair was the only drug my youngest was on so I know his symptoms came from that. Good luck to everyone and thanks for the posts!

My 6 year old daughter has been off the Singulair for 5 days, after being on it for like 4 years. I have noticed some big changes for the positive... but she is still yelling at me when I have to get her up for school...and ight before bed. She is falling asleep a little better, and waking up less. But this screaming is so bad. I need to videotape it so people will believe me..as to how bad it is! Anyone else have some side effects still left, or did the all go away right away?

My 8 year old son began experiencing depression, aggression and suicidal behavior in the past two months (on Singulair since age 4). I immediately took him off of Singulair 4 days ago and I see a change already. He is smiling, laughing and singing again. He's had meltdowns (crying, tantrums, etc) since age 4, but I never suspected the drugs. I HAVEN'T SEEN ANY CRYING OR TANTRUMS IN 4 DAYS! We'll see if the change in behavior "sticks." After reading everything on this site, I have a feeling it will.

I have a 10 year old daughter who has been on Singulair for 3 years for allergies. The medication worked great and has not had ANY problems with allergies at all. I don't know exactly when her behavior started to change. It was so gradual. She became irritable and easily upset but I thought it had to do with hormones. In January 08 she began complaining of stomach problems and the doctor thought maybe reflux. We tried medicine for that but it did not help for long. Then in March 08 it really it hard. She began to have leg cramps often, which I thought were growing pains and the mood swings were terrible. She began to have tantrums that were so bad they were like night terrors but she was awake. She would talk of dying and hurting something or breaking something. She would lye on the floor and pound away uncontrollably. She would cry help me help me why am I feeling like this. She states she doesn't know why she does this and does not feel normal. I was researching allergies this past weekend and came across the Singulair problems. I had no idea about them. I immediately stopped the medicine and today is the 3rd day without it. I have seen improvement already. I was really encouraged because of her unusually great mood. However, she had a crying episode
tonight. I know it takes time to get out of the system. I am hoping within a few more days she will be free of this terrible medicine. Patients should definitely be warned of possible side effects. Not everyone may react in this terrible way but from reading so many forums there are a tremendous amount of people who do, children and adults.

Here is some perspective for you all. I take Singulair and do well on it and in ACTUAL studies it has one of the safest safety records. Understand that post marketing reporting does not mean there is a correlation between the event and the product. Throughout the life of a drug the companies must disclose any report of side effects reported to them REGARDLESS of causality. A popular antihistamine that is OVER THE COUNTER also has suicidal thinking/behavior listed in its post marketing section. However, just because patients who had reported having these thoughts while taking the product doesn't mean it was a result of the product! Maybe they had a depressive personality and were also on multiple other medicines to treat that. You must look at the "Adverse Reactions, Warnings and Precautions" sections of package inserts to see the side effects that were actually seen in studies. You can die from ulcers derived from over use of aspirin or ibuprofen. Decongestants can throw off your blood pressure and these events are documented in actual studies! Listen to your bodies when taking any med. If you feel differently report it to your doctor.

These are all drugs people, there are potential side effects. There are also side effects to those "natural" over the counter remedies that are not nearly as regulated by the FDA or studies by the drug companies.

To anyone out there who has experienced side effects to singulair timed to when you started it, talk to your doctor, stop taking it and see if it goes away. Same advice for any product prescription or over the counter medicine. Side effects can be a combination of many factors (what other meds are you taking?) But understand for many people this product is the safest and most effective treatment for them. The FDA and Merck are reviewing all information to see if there is any correlation to the reporting. But singulair been around for about 10 years and prescibed to billions of people and is known to be one of the safer medicines out there overall.

In between the legitimate posts on this site I get the sense there is a lot of ambulance chasing going on. People looking to cash in on this big drug companies. We want drugs, we want them cheap and with no side effects which is not a reality. Keep stepping up the regulation and make the companies hire more lawers to protect themselves and jump through even more hoops and see what happens to the price and access to new meds. Even better, see how regulation has impacted the development of new medicines around the world (here's a tip, it will dramatically decrease). Drug companies certainly aren't perfect but which industry is?

Please, when taking any medicine over the counter, prescription or herbal supplement listen to your bodies to see if the potential benefits of the product outway the risks or side effects. Report any changes to your doctor.

"OH MY GOD"!! Is all I have been able to say since I learned about this on Friday!!! Reading all these posts is just like reading a diary about my 5 1/2 yr old daughter. She was diagnosed with asthma when she was just 2yrs old....continual trips to the ER because she was wheezing, breathing sounded like she had swallowed something and it was lodged in her wind pipe, lethargic, high temp, etc only to be told it was bronchitis, pneumonia, a viral infection etc., until she was referred to the pulmonologist and he told me it was asthma, never the other diagnosis she was given, so he put her on SINGULAIR. Shortly after she started SINGULAIR she became an entirely different little girl. Threw "OUTRAGOUS" tantrums/fits, was "wild", moody, poor attention, uncontrollable, angry, screamed and cried all the time, very defiant.......just this being that I didn't recognize as my sweet affectionate little baby. Even the "please and thank you's" and the hugs and kisses just because eventually slipped away. I sit here today recalling the day that I was at my desk at work and called this doctor's office, spoke to the nurse and said to her..."I think that SINGULAIR is causing her to act like a totally different person, something is wrong, this is what she is doing, and I told her the symptoms, I think it is the medication"!! She spoke with the doc and called me back only to say, "It cant possibly be the medication, it isn't a steroid type med that causes behavioral problems, it has to be something else"! So knowing how well controlled her asthma was on this medication, I "fell for it"....who wants to see their child in such distress with asthma (not knowing that I was in fact right about the med being the culprit)?! Months went by and her behavior got increasingly worse, she would literally whip things off a counter with one stroke of her hand, she has knocked over 20 pound 4 foot high stereo speakers and took a big chunk out of my wall, she has hit and bit, the list goes on and on-keep in mind she was just 2 at the time. She was very unsafe to be allowed to play outside with out being in a fenced in back yard because she would dart to the street and pay no mind to that scared mom yelling for her to STOP, it was like she was in another state of mind, a different person, you could look at her face and see in her eyes, my baby just wasn't there. When she was 3 she got upset at day care lodged a toy at the teacher and jumped over the loft for no reason. She has been knick named "klutz butt" because she has been so unstable on her feet, she trips over her own 2 feet, falls all the time and we just look at her like, how in the world did ya do that---is that related to SINGULAIR as well?!?!? She was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, worked with an OT/PT, her behaviors got increasingly worse and I had no idea what was going on with her, I took her to see neuropsychologist and was told definite sensory issues, possible obstinate defiant disorder, taught how to do "the hold" when her behaviors got so out of control that either she was going to hurt herself or someone else, she has torn her room and the house apart in these fits of rage, at 4 took her to see a child counselor and told "Oh classic ADHD for sure"! All along I have told people I just don't feel in my heart that ADHD is what is going on with her, I think it is something else...her kindergarten teacher commented that her abilities in school are inconsistent, I note now that after her dose increased she forgot everything she knew academically and people thought I was crazy when I told them yes, she knows her ABC's, can identify numbers, etc! The behavioral things that this girl has done are just sooooo unexplainable and to now see all the posts that others who have loved ones on this drug have dealt with brings some relief to my mind to know that I am not crazy! but it brings deep sadness and anger to know that I suspected it to be the SINGULAIR early on and did not go with my gut and take my child off this drug!! She has been on this med since she was 2, she is now 5 1/2. In September 2007 her doctor suggested she be taken off SINGULAIR and put on Flovent because Flovent covers better......I was too scared to take her off (imagine that) so she did not come off SINGULAIR until January of this year- BEFORE I became aware of the risks. I have a strong glimpse of my baby again.....less and less of these horrendous fits she used to throw, less crying and screaming, her breath doesn't have that wrenched smell, she is doing much better in school, easier to get along with, is happier these days. I am now struggeling with the fact that after these last 3 1/2 years of literal turmoil and having been ridden with such anxiety of raising this child that acted like such a monster thinking that she was always going to be this uncontrollable child with all this anger and it would only get worse as she got older.............it's now a habit of being on the defense all the time, waiting for the next shoe to drop.....but that is over! so now we have to re-adjust our life....this is a horrible feeling to know that this medication has ruined the first forming years in my child's life and strained the bond between her and I.
Where do I go from here??? Do I call her doctor and start screaming at him? Do I call an attorney?? What do I do??? I know what I have done is thank GOD that I have the opportunity now to regain my sweet little baby and pray to Him that there are no lasting side affects from SINGULAIR!!!
If someone knows what it is that we are to do please feel free to comment me.

Oh my god!!!! My poor daughter. My daughter Karilynn has been taking this drug for about 8 months now. She is 2 1/2 years old now. All of the sudden she had a drastic change in behavior, sleep and eating patterns. She began with sleep problems. She would wake up in the middle of the night screaming that the green monsters were after her. I chocked it up to night terrors that weren't explained. Then she started waking up screaming that her "bottom" hurt but would point to her stomach. She quit eating, cried all the time, started acting out randomly. My little girl who had never had discipline problems started randomly hitting and biting me. It wasn't even when I would discipline her for something. She would literally come up and bite me out of no where. She throws huge tantrums now. The daycare lady even asked me if something was going on at home because she was doing strange things there also. Not knowing what was wrong (but trusting my mother instinct that there was SOMETHING wrong) I started to think that maybe she was being abused. The night mares, the random pain.... I even had a breif moment where I thought my grandmother was hurting her. I want to throw up thinking about that now. I took her to the pediatrician, who ran every test imaginable to "rule out any physical reason" that could be causing all of these symptoms at once. Test after test came back negative. I actually have the number to the psychologist that does "play therapy" sitting in front of me because we were seriously terrified that someone was hurting her. Little did I know it was us!!!! I called tha asthma dr. yesterday after seeing the news story and he told me that my concerns weren't really valid and that it sounded like she was being a "typical" two year old. That really made me angry. After reading all of these accounts there is very little doubt in my mind that it is the medicine. It all makes sense now. Halleluah if it is such a simple fix!!! I was worried my daughter was being ABUSED!!!! What an unimaginable feeling for any parent!! I quit the singulair last night against the asthma doctors "urging" and gave the daycare lady a heads up. Its sad to say but I pray this is all that is wrong with my little girl!!! If someone files a class action suit please let me know. Also if there is anything more I can do to make sure someone else doesn't go through this let me know!!!!!

I have been reading all of the responses for a few days now. My 9 year old son has been on Singular for a few years now. I took him off Singular on Friday night. He has always been my moody and difficult one - not bad, he was very sensitive. He was hard to wake up in the morning for school. He was often grumpy and would cry at the drop of a hat. Some days he was more pleasant than others, but we never knew what would set him off. Some days he could be downright nasty. Little things would get under his skin and annoy him - especially anything his younger brothers did! He would cry for no reason and when asked would say, "I down know why I am crying, I just don't know."

When he woke up on Sunday morning, he was different - much happier and easy going. Throughout the day we saw a different child. He has gotten up each morning without complaint, got ready for school, packed his bag, and got a snack for the day. When he couldn't find his school bag, he didn't flip out and blame everyone else (which would have been the normal reaction.) Instead, he found it by himself! He is no longer arguing about everything. He is nice to be around.

I'm still holding my breath and waiting for something to happen. My husband is convinced that Singular has to be the cause - what else would have caused this dramatic shift in his behavior. I want to see how he is over the next few weeks. As each day passes, I am believing more and more that this drug caused these behaviors and getting angrier and angrier

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.

I have been crying for almost 24 hours now. I cannot believe what I am reading and hearing about Singulair. My son has been to hell and back again and again. I cannot say for sure the Singulair is the culprit. But after reading all of the other stories on this website, I am convinced it is a strong possibility.

My son is 11 years old. He has severe allergies and asthma. He takes many, many medications for this including Singulair. He as been on Singulair for about 8 years now (my best guess because he has been on it for sooooo long.)

My son was diagnosed with ADHD in pre-school. He has taken many medications for the ADHD, but none have ever done any good at all. We thought some of the medications even made things worse. Now, I'm not so sure.

After exhausting all the ADHD medications, our pediatrician sent my son to a psychiatrist and a counselor. The psychiatrist put him on 2 different antipsychotic medications. Again, neither one did any good and seemed to make matters worse. The psychiatrist sent my son to a psychologist to be tested for Asperger's. For those of you who don't know Asperger's is a high functioning form of autism. The psychologist ruled out Asperger's by diagnosed ADHD and Anxiety Disorder. He did not prescribe any medication.

For some unknown reason, I've only given my son the Singulair off and on for the last year. My son had the best year in school ever. However, his pediatrician was still not satisfied. He sent him to see another psychiatrist at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. We were told he is believed to have more than one disability. He is believed to have ADHD, Aspergers, Teurettes and a possible 4th medical problem that has not yet come to light.

We are scheduled to see a neurologist at Children's Hospital on the 15th of April to rule out any medical reasons for his tics. We see the psychiatrist again on the 18th of April.

I am so tormented by this recent news. Has all of these problems been caused from him taking the Singulair for so long? Although he has had his best year in school yet, he still has a lot of problems. Are the side effects of the Singulair permanent.

The other side of the coin is this: It is also very scary to watch my son not be able to breath. Asthma can also be life threatening. What is a parent supposed to do.

Also, I now don't know whether to keep these appointments that are coming up. I hate so much to put him through more. He has endured enough doctors and tests to last him a lifetime. However, what if it is not the Singulair and there is help out there for him that I am not aware of.

Please if anyone else has had a similar experiences e-mail me. I would love to hear from you.

God Bless everyone who has been through this kind of hell.

I am amazed at the stories, but also feel somewhat validated. I have a 10 year old boy who has been on Singulair since he was 2. My husband and I often wondered why we had such a grumpy boy? He had such horrible tantrums until age 6. We often thought of sending to someone for anger management, but really it was the drug doing this to him and I'm the one who continued to supply it to him. What really makes me sad though, I don't even know what his personality really is-it's been altered for 8 years. I can't wait to get to know my real son...

Behavioral changes started when my son was 3 years old and on Singulair, 4mg chewables. He became more angry, irritable, and even stated a few times that he wished he were dead. He has had trouble concentrating and has frequent nightmares.

I have son that has been on singular for 5years . He is 14 and a half started taking it for his asthma its his wonder drug never any side affects! I had him stop taking to see if his asthma got better within 2 weeks he started wheezing every day and asked my if he could start taking it again I put him back on it no side affects again works wonders i would recommend any day for asthma. Every one can blame drugs and that sorts but if you think your a bad parent for trying a med. to see if would help your child well then you could be just as bad for not trying cause one child committed suicide while taking it does not mean my child will . In that statement i think the doctors no more than we do thats why they go to school, and now and days they will put any child on meds and say they have add or add parents too... so its all in what you believe in if it works for your child then it does if it don`t try something else but there could be a lot of other reasons why your child acts out! My other son acts and sounds much like you describe as side effects well guess what he is 9 and takes no meds just vitamins! good luck all and don`t get scared. sometimes its just who they are! Yes my 14 and half year old will continue with his singular until my doctors say other wise.

I feel Singulair has completely destroyed the beautiful, peaceful personality of my 6yo. Although it's helped with her allergies and allergy associated asthma, this poison has destroyed her life - and all those around her. Her fuse is so sort, there is none. She's gone from a calm child to a spaced out, angry wild child - throwing tantrums like she's never thrown, hitting, screaming, shouting. She has no reasoning capacity, she often seems like "the lights are on but no one's home", she's absolutely inconsolable when in one of these "rages". The aggression is unbelievable and uncontrollable. She, herself, feels out of control and explains she wants to stop screaming, but can't. She hates herself, poor little angel. She's also experienced tummy pain, headaches and numbness in her extremities. This drug is despicable. We should all demand that it's removed from the market...immediately! And what about the doctors telling us there are no side effects? Children could be put on anti-depressants or ADD medication to relieve the side effects of allergy medication, and it's considered to have no side effects! Incredible! Does anybody know how long it takes to get this poison out of the system? I took my little girl off it two days ago and she seems to be experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms.

I don't typically write on message boards, but wanted to share my story. I wish I knew about the affects of singular before I gave it to our son.

My 3 year old son was put on Singular and 2 puffers at age 2 1/2. He had chronic coughing and croup and seemed to always have throat infections. Our Family Doctor thought it was seasonal allergies, (and because he was under the age of 6 - no allergy testing can truly be done) so she prescribed Singular. As tired parents of a little boy who didn't seem to sleep through the night any longer, we did as the doctor advised and gave him the medication every night.

Almost immediately, his behavior changed from a happy 2 1/2 year old to a child with severe tantrums (we never experienced this behavior before), terrible night terrors to the point we were having trouble with him going to bed at night and him telling us every day he had leg pain. He would cry and hold his little leg - limping. Our son could speak at a very young age, so he was able to articulate his feelings/reactions to us. We thought we were entering the terrible "2's" late, but through our experience and ours alone I am certain it was the singular. After this I decided to check online only to be overwhelmed with similar reactions to this drug. We immediately stopped giving the drug to him. We had noticed that his tonsils were getting larger and larger and they would often have infected white soars over them. Off we would go to the Doctor who told us it may or may not be strep and prescribe antibiotics, he would complete a cycle of antibiotics and within 10 days the symptoms would return. We demanded we see a throat specialist to see if the coughing/sleep apnea and terrible drooling could be caused by his huge tonsils. He progressively stopped eating his favorite foods and would wince every time we served him meat.

We finally saw a specialist and at first look at our little boys’ throat, the specialist said 2 things: 1) "Let me guess, he will only eat pasta?" - which was the case, apparently it was the only thing he was able to eat without pain; and 2) "I do not know how this little boy isn't acting out more, he has to be in so much pain". The specialist explained that every time he coughed or ate, the infected soars on his tonsils would burst causing nausea and pain. Because it hurt to swallow, saliva would pool in his throat causing his terrible coughing fits. He had his tonsils/adenoids removed 3 weeks after our visit (which isn't done as often as it used to be) and he has been PERFECT ever since. He hasn't had 1 cold, he hasn't coughed one night and he is eating/laughing/playing like the child he was before singular. DO NOT TAKE SINGULAR unless they can conduct the proper asthma/allergy testing appropriate for the child's age. They were medicating my child with the assumption that he MAY have it. The reason for his coughing and wheezing was his enormous tonsils. A procedure which was hard to go through with a 3 year old, but he is truly a different child today.

I trust this information will be helpful to parents in the same situation.

Thank you for this site and all who posted! My daughter at 6 years was put on 4 mg of singulair for the later half of the winter last year for preventative measures after repeated visits to the doctors for bad colds and coughs resulting in wheezing. They told me she had "cold induced asthma." My daughter has had no previous asthma or history of, any history of trouble breathing etc. I can honestly say looking back that I didn't notice any glaring difference in her personality last year. I didn't like the idea of putting her on a daily med but I trusted the doc and asthma specialist and was told I could take her off in the spring 07 when the "cold season was over and most threats had passed. This year, at age 7, I was told to start Singulair again a week before school started in August 07 as a prevention med for the upcoming germ/cold school year. The dosage was increased to 5 mg due to her age. Note, she is a tiny, petite girl with not a huge amount of weight gain from prev. year. Let me tell you, September and the begining of October while on this med, my daughter was extremely irritable, down right nasty at times, crying very easily, tantrums, lacked a desire to do her homework and not very focused. In short, this was NOT my daughter. I didn't recognize her and it scared me. I like others who've posted, would try to blame her behavior on outside events or troubles. Anything to try to understand what was going on and explain her behavior. Sadly at first, Singulair didn't occur to me so I just kept battling with her to the point of almost asking for psych. help. Thank goodness I didn't! It was like a light bulb went off in my head as I was about to hand her her singulair one night. I went to the internet, read these posts and saw some of the exact same things being quoted. Coincidence? I think not! I stopped giving her the Singulair it's been 2 weeks now and the results are so dramatic and obvious to me. I had my daughter back! I, like a lot of you was told it was safe! My pharmacist told me that while there were studies on adults with a small % reporting agitation, there have been no studies in children. I find that amazing considering so may children are prescribed it. Last note - report your symptoms to your doctor, even if they don't agree with your findings. It may eventually help others in the future if enough of us report. Thanks to all of you and good luck.

If anyone could see me right now they would know I am about to blow my head off. Two weeks ago my 28 month old daughter was taken to her doctor by her father. He said she has allergies. She came back with prescriptions for Nasonex and Singulair. I thought this was odd because I RARELY hear her coughing but apparently her doctor says she is wheezing and could develop Asthma. So her father was giving her the meds and this week she came back home for school. Now I know every toddler has moments and tantrums but this week I saw my happy, loving, well behaved daughter have her very first tantrum for no reason at all. She has been falling asleep in preschool, complaining that she is sick, that her tummy hurts, sleeping 11 hours a night, 2 hours in school and still falling asleep everywhere else. She has been moody, irritable, and uncooperative about absolutely everything (so unlike her). I told her father I was not going to give her Singulair anymore and of course since "doctor knows best" she is back with him for the weekend and he is giving her Singulair. I AM LIVID!!!!! I thought maybe I was being unrealistic as a parent to expect my daughter to always be sweet and well behaved but after reading these other posts I am sure that for at least this case, mother knows best.

Against my better judgement, I followed the doctors advice and put my then 9mth old daughter on singulair for severe allergies. When she started to take it she immediately began to change. he became aggressive, moody and would have nightmares, while waking up screaming. I voiced my concerns to her peditrican and she said that those where some of the side effects but not to worry. As the weeks went by, my daughter's behavior began to worsen that's when I made the decision to take her off. Almost immediately after she went off singulair, she was happier, had no more nightmares, no tantrums and was not clingy anymore. I few weeks again my daughter went in to the doctor because she suffered from muliple ear infections and their reasoning was that her mius was not draining and that she needed to go back on singulair to help drain the mucus from her nose and ears. So I was scared because her doctors began to tell me that if I didn't get the drainage out of the ears she could suffer hearing loss and speech delayment. So, I put her back on the singulair. She has only been back on the medicine for 2 weeks ans she is back to her old ways, excessive crying, tantrums, etc. If I didn't get it the first time I really get it now. I will be taking her off ASAP and will NEVER put her back on it. The doctors should be careful about what they prescribe for children to take. They don't realize that the parents and children are effected by the decicions they make. We as parents only want the best for our children and we take the advie of the doctors because we assume they know and would not harm the children, but parents as we have read on this blog, the doctors either don't know or don't care. It is up to us to do what's right and that is follow your first mind and ask questions and research all medications they want to put your children on.

My 4 year old son was placed on Singulair right before his 2nd birthday. 3 weeks ago I had scheduled him an appointment with his doctor to talk with him about my son's behaviour (excessive anxiety, aggression, terrible sleeping patterns, aggitation, reduced attention span, etc) thinking it was going to be something along the lines of ADD. Right before his appointment I found this board and another in which parents have voiced their own experiences of having their child on Singulair. Needless to say, I switched his appt to his allergist and pulled him off the Singulair. It's been 2 1/2 weeks, and he has become a different child at home. He is sleeping better, the nightmares have disappeared, his tantrums have become almost non-existant, his concentration and ability to retain information from scholastic has improved, and those constant complaints of leg pains are gone. Doctors really need to be warning parents about these side effects, especially when putting very young children on this medication. We thought it was the terrible twos that carried over into the three's then four's. Apparently it wasn't........