My 13 year old has allergies and he was put on Zyrtec last year but this year they have gotten worse and I was thinking of trying Singulair.... which one works better for you? Thanks in advance for your response! : )
I was on both. I switched from Zyrtec to Allegra D because Zyrtec was making me sleepy. I stopped Singulair when it was announced that it had some bad side effects, especially in kids. I would research it and talk to different pharmisists before putting one of my kids on it. Good luck !!
We used to use Zyrtec.. However, within the last two months, my son seems to have outgrown (about 3 years worth ) of what were allergies to dust mites... Prior to this, we gave him Zyrtec and had plastic coverings on his mattress and pillow cases.. When we used to use the stuff, despite it saying, non-drowsy.. we found that it was.. Therefore, we gave it to him at night. In fact, when we did this, he did better on it than if we gave it to him in the morning.. Also don't forget , whenever you are outside on a high pollen day, it does get in one's hair. Therefore, be sure and change your son's pillow case every night (we found it helped) additionally, pets carry dust and pollen on them.. Lastly, we don't wear shoes in our house (they bring in a lot of dirt) and I vacuum our throw rugs every day.. all these things definitely help to keep the house less dusty and ward off allergies.. if not completely, more so than if we did nothing..
good luck
I HATE Zyrtec.
Why?
It makes be IRRITABLE and tired.
I use, over the counter Claritin.
I get no side effects from this.
I have allergies... seasonal and just to things like dust. Airborne stuff.
My daughter is on Zyrtec in the am and Singulair in the pm. Different meds.
Singulair was holding her over when she took Clariton in the am but it wasn't quite enough.
Singular works differently. It helps clear stuff up and can stop asthma too. My H takes it and does well with it. It has a generic now so it is much cheaper. My youngest took it fine for about a year. He had a tic with his eyes that was occasional but with the singulair it increased dramatically. He had to stop it. Do choose wisely.
Zyrtec doesn't work for me at all. As in, I might as well be taking jelly beans.
Singulair, however, is a godsend.
Sometimes you have to play around before you find the right drugs.
We use Claritin for my 7-year-old and it works fairly well. We put him on Singulair for a while...it made him CRAZY. Like, running around singing at the top of his lungs at 10 p.m. crazy. We couldn't get him off it fast enough. Kids react differently, though, so it could work like a dream for yours.
They are two complete different drugs. One is an antihistamine (zyrtec) and the other is a leukotrene receptor (singulair). They can even be taken in combination.
I would imagine both could have their own set of side effects but my daughter experienced joint pain from Singulair.
My allergist told me that you can also take a combination of antihistamines (zyrtec, claritin, benadryl that I know of.) Once you reach that point though you may want to consider long term treatment and get the allergy shots to build up your immune system. It takes time but they really do work.
My son began taking Singulair about 12 years ago (he is 16 now) - its first indices where for asthma prevention, later it was also introduced for allergy control. It worked well for him for both issues.
He has also taken Zyrtec, Allegra, Claritin - a host of allergy medications. What we have found is that we need to cycle through them. One may work well for 6-12 months, then begin to lose effectiveness, so we switch to another.
Also, for things like Claritin I just buy the generic over the counter ones now.
Poor kiddos - mine is sniffling now - it will be a Benadryl night for him.
Singulair gave my son stomach pains when he took it for just a few weeks. He does ok on the zyrtec. When we rotate off the zyrtec periodically, we usually switch over to Allegra. He prefers the zyrtec, so that is what we stick with for the most part.
And allergy shots. :)
