Singulair

[RainbowBrite]

My Pead has reassessed my DD3's asthma meds as she has not had the best winter.
She was on Flixotide, ventolin and redipred when needed.
He is now changing the fixotide to seretide (steroid and long acting ventolin) as well as the ventolin and redipred.
He also wants to add singulair to that regimen but I have been researching into it and the side effects are quite scary.
From the singulair site;

Behavior and mood-related changes have been reported. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you or your child have any of these symptoms while taking SINGULAIR:

agitation including aggressive behavior or hostility
bad or vivid dreams
depression
disorientation (confusion)
feeling anxious
hallucination (seeing or hearing things that are not really there)

irritability
restlessness
sleepwalking
suicidal thoughts and actions (including suicide)
tremor
trouble sleeping

I would really love to hear from those who have either had their child on this or have been on it themselves and if they have experienced any of the side effects....or it has been a positive drug.
Reading this has scared me and I know her pead is talking about this for her benefit but at what cost.
I am very confused.

[Glass half full]

I'm sorry , I have no experience with singulair and am not aware of the severity of you DD's asthma, but would it not be worth just giving the switch from flixotide to seretide a trial before adding another drug? I was on flixotide for a while but found I was still needing ventolin at least once a day. It really felt not different to when I was not even on a preventer. This year I started taking seretide and do not need my ventolin at all, with the exception of being sick or strenuous exercise
etc.
Is the singulair something to take regularly as a preventer, or is it for when she has an asthma attack?
I am in no way comparing my situation with your DD's, it seems her case is much more severe than mine and of course I can't really compare an adult with a child, but I just thought I'd share that with you anyway
Good luck with it all, I hope your DD doesn't suffer any of the negative side effects you listed above.

[black_rose]

I agree with munchkin see how the seretide goes first before adding in a second new drug with such scary side effects. My dd uses seretide and ventolin for her asthma.

[Lenny]

My DS1 is on singulair. Nothing else stopped the problem, but singulair did, so we use it for that reason. We dislike the fact that he is on it permanently at the moment, but we weaned him off it as a trial, and the problem came straight back. So we started it again.

I wish he wasn't so young that we can't explain side effects to him. We have not noticed ANY changes in behaviour. I sincerely hope that he is not feeling any of those things you list. The improvement in his health has been very noticeable.

ETA - when we started the singulair we researched and in conjunction with the dr decided that singulair was a better safer long term option than steriods.

[kelebek]

DS is also on Singulair and has been for 6 mnths now. I haven't really noticed a change in his moods (he was always a bit whingy and had a vivid imagination) and ventalin didn't seem to have any effect. His coughing does seemed to have eased with the singulair although whenever he get's a cold/runny nose he still coughs but not all night like he was.

I really trusted his dr but he never mentioned these side effects... I really hope he isn't feeling any of them

[Lilliansmummy]

I myself have been on it and didnt have any adverse effects.
When a doctor is prescribing ANY meds, they weigh up the benifits and the side effects, "a child who is moody but can breath compaired to sweet child and cant breath"
Steriods are bad, you will notice the adverse effects more and ALWAYS wheen the dose of steriods to avoid bad bad adverse effect.

Thats my bit of nursey facts for the day Hope she is feeling better soon x