Singular - Manhattan,KS

My mom has been on it for 5 years or so, we have been trying to get to the bottom of her sleep problems which include insomnia, sleep talking, thrashing around in her sleep, we have recently suspected that its the Singulair causing the problems. She stopped taking it for almost a week now and has had no trouble in her sleeping, so I just wanted to weigh in with that experience.

I would call the doctor and talk with him about the affects in children. The drug companies have to put all that info on there for lawsuit reasons, but it would be good to know how comment they are and what you should look for. Then you can weigh that against how bad the hay fever/asthma symptoms are.

I would talk to your pharmacist as well as your doctor.

First of all, good for you for being wise enough to read up about the medication before letting your child take it. Not all parents do that. I have been in the pharmaceutical industry for over a decade, and few patients take the time to learn about medications before taking them.

Secondly, the FDA requires that all side effects experienced in at least 2% of the clinical trial population or reported after the product has been on the market be included in their "Package Insert".

If you're not looking at the FDA approved document, here's the information:
http://www.singulair.com/montelukast_sodium/consumer/alle...

I don't see any of those at first glance.
Singulair has been on the market a LONG time and was recently approved for allergies in addition to its long-standing asthma approval.

Your pharmacist has dispensed many prescriptions and counseled many patients, by law. They'll have access to documents as well as the company to ask so you can feel comfortable. Most importantly, your daughter needs relief so she can get back to being a kid......as safely as possible.

If it were my child, I would be comfortable giving her the prescription.

Good luck!

<grinning> For some reassurance (or for a total freakout) check out a copy of the PDR (physicians desk reference), or go online to drugs.com and just start looking at different meds.

EVERY single med on the planet has about 50 possible side effects. The top 5-10 or so are listed for every medication (meaning that they cause those effects in at least 2% of the population). Even tylenol has a "scary" list of possible side effects. Check out the list of side effects for birthcontrol pills (stroke, heart attack, cancer, blood clots). As a matter of fact one of my sisters becomes deathly ill with tylenol. Doesn't mean it's not a safe med, just that she has an adverse reaction to it. Some people react that way to tylenol, but it is less than %0.001 of the population. Maybe a dozen people out of hundreds of millions, or even a billion. It's one of the safest drugs on the market. But even it, still has it's list of side effects.

The reason we have these huge lists is that FDA approved drugs have been, and are continuously, rigorously studied. Most of the scary side effects are essentially our body "rejecting" the med, similar to an allergic reaction (but technically different).

My cousin is an herbal pharmacologist. (MD, Pharmacist, she has more letters after her name than the alphabet). Part of what she's working on is compiling similar lists of reactions and uses for non-fda regulated drugs. Some of the things she's studying are fascinating (antiviral properties of certain native religious ceremonies, etc.), and some are downright scary (things sold over the counter in the "beauty"/ natural section which would NEVER pass an FDA study. Hylands, for example, will NEVER be allowed in my house. I'd allow LSD or magic mushrooms before teething tablets. (I'd use whiskey and sugar before a hallucinogenic nerve toxin).

Anyhow... the list of possible side effects are things *to keep an EYE out for*, not to freak about. Meaning/Example; if a side effect is nightmares, & you notice frequent nightmares, it's not because school started... but probably related to the med, so time to try a new med. Ditto if a side effect is diahreeah, it probably wasn't the chicken chow mein, but the med. Knowing what the side effects of meds are allows us to treat responsibly. My husband drives me NUTS about this. He started an antidepressant a few years ago, and almost instantly broke out in a rash. Instead of linking it to "duh, I just started a new med, maybe they're linked" he decided that we needed new laundry detergent, or that maybe he needed new seat covers. Sigh. Lets see here baby. You started a new medication a week ago. 3 days later you break out in a rash. Ya THINK they might be related?

The mood thing is common to MOST anti-histamines for the very simple reason that MOST antihistamines make us sleepy, and when we're tired we tend to have mood shifts. Some get hyper, some get cranky. So you'll notice in the PDR, that EVERY med that tends to make people sleepy is also listed as possibly affecting mood.

The POSSIBLE side effects aren't worth freaking out over, just keep an eye out for them.

my daughter was on it when she was 1 1/2 till bout 2-2 1/2 we took her off it because she got insomnia-would wake for hrs at night which she never did before-once off it she was back to normal-we just do claritin. She had no other side effects-I think if you read any side effects you would be horrified :) most are rare cases, but the need to report all that happened. Why not try over the counter meds first and see if that helps. L.:)

My daughter (she is 4) takes the Singulair granules for allergies - on and off for the past two years or so. I give it to her only at night because she has a tendency to cough more at night. I haven't seen any adverse reactions. Laura is right - the side effects that are on any medication have to include everything...usually the percentage is very low for the more severe ones.
I'm on birth control pills, and I know one of the warnings are blood clots...but I also know that there are other contributing factors to that side effect.

I agree with most of what Riley had to say...it was a great answer. Side effects are something to be aware of...not necessarily get freaked out about. However, a lot of dangerous substances can be useful in the right dosage and conditions.

BUT I did want to say that, if your daughter does start experiencing some of these symptoms, don't let anyone talk you into believing that its NOT the medication.

My daughter was only 1.5 when she was given a prescription for Singulair to help dry up reoccuring fluid in her ears and seasonal allergies. Within three days, my little daughter had become a screaming, hitting, biting little monster...to a degree far beyond what was being experienced at that point. She would have 3, 4, 5 night terrors in a single night and within a few days we were both exhausted and I was in tears.

The ENT we were seeing was dismissive and kept chalking up to normal terrible twos. Normal two year olds do not chase you through the house, screeching like a banshee all while having a night terror!

I wasn't the only one who noticed a difference...she almost got kicked out of her daycare that she'd been at (happily) for more than a year!

She has the same reaction to Zyrtec. I sincerely hope your story isn't the same as ours, but wanted you to know that you may not be alone. I decided, with my regular pediatrician, to just ride out the allergies and use Mucinex and Benadryl to manage her symptoms.

I would suggest doing a little online research about night terrors. There are some good tips about how to manage them.

Read Riley's answer.
Again.
Please do NOT give your child anything OTC.
Prescription meds are safer than OTC meds.
Check with your doctor about dosage.
Make sure you are clear on the differences
between ongoing daily meds for maintenance
versus meds intended for immediate relief of symptoms.
Your child's comfort and energy while she has symptoms
will be seriously affected.
One of the trade-offs will be whether (possible) side effects
with relief of symptoms will be better or worse
than living with symptoms.
Especially asthma attacks.
One can live with allergic symptoms . . . itchy-drippy-sniffly.
In my opinion.
It's tiring and messy but tolerable.
Asthma is a whole nother subject.
Having an asthma attack is frightening and can even be life-threatening.
S.

ask your doctor about zyrtec. We had it in liquid form when the kids were little and they took it for allergies and asthma.

My son was on Singulair for ages. He didn't start it that young because it wasn't out then. But, he never had any problems with it. He had terrible allergies though and asthma. He had to take that and allergy medicine just to get through the spring and fall. He took it all through his teen years too with no side effects.

My 3 y/o has been having bad allergies too, and one of my co-workers who goes to a prominent allergist told me that this guy thinks a lot of the allergies in little kids are due to Vitamin D deficiency, and when they get their levels back up, a lot of times the symptoms completely disappear or certainly reduce a lot. You'll want to get him tested to get his current levels and then have them figure out what dose to give him and keep monitoring it, because you can get too high of levels and then get Vit D poisoning. My son's allergist hadn't heard of this, but I will discuss it with her at his next appointment. In the meantime, I found gummy Vit D's that have 800 units, which shouldn't cause any problem. Just a thought, I prefer vitamins over drugs so I'd give it a shot!

My son has been on it for years (he is 11 now and has been on it for at least 4 years) and he has not had any problems. It has significantly reduced his allergies which, for him, caused migraines, so for our family it was worth it.

I LOVE Riley's response! :))
My son, at age 7 also actually, was prescribed singular tablets for allergic rhinitis. This was about 5 years ago, so I think maybe just a little before all the suicidal black label warning stuff came out about Singulair. But he was only on it for about a month, because he started complaining of a stomachache every night at bedtime (about a half hour after taking the meds). I looked, and sure enough it was a possible side effect. So we discontinued and let him use Nasonex spray.

Now that he is older, and he has gotten worse and worse with the allergies with age, we are having him treated with allergy shots, to trigger a different response to his allergens.... and hopefully relieve his symptoms LONG term, not just for 24 hours. :) He was never diagnosed with asthma, until this year he had an episode at karate. Yup, exercise induced asthma (after having bagged up 7 bags of composted leaves). That was the prompt to get the allergies under better control.

H.,

If you had no other options, you might want to take the chance of putting your daughter on Singulair, but you probably do have other options. I've raised 4 kids (youngest is 15) without using prescription or over-the-counter meds, with only a handful of exceptions. I realize that some kids are born with issues that my kids were not born with, but when they have had health issues, we've used options that are actually healthy in and of themselves. If you'd like to know some simple nutritional options that are time-tested and safe, I'd be glad to share what I know.

They have to list every side effect that anyone reports (regardless if it actually was due to the medicine, interactions of multiple medicines, or something completely unrelated). There have been studies to show it is safe, but if people are prone to those things they could/may/possibly be worse. That being said, my son took this for years and the only thing it did was to help his allergies and asthma (once he was stable, I don't think he needed his inhaler again). He was like your daughter, he had allergies that seemed to trigger asthma like symptoms (wheezing, etc) but only when his allergies were bad or he got sick. Singulair was originally put on the market for asthma, then they found that it really helped allergies, (like hay fever) did more clinical trials and gave it an official second use.

That all being said, whenever you start a new medication you should watch your child for changes in behavior, personality, all of these types of things, because even medicines that don't affect anyone else can affect you (which is partially why they get lists like that). This is one of the safer meds without steroids, which are known to have really bad side effects, but it's better than not breathing.

I would definitely try it, but of course watch your child. Pretty good chance you won't see anything (also my son has always had night terrors, funnily, he got them worse after he came off the meds).

My son has been taking Singulair since he was about that age as well, and he is 14 now. Have never had any ill side effects at all. He uses it for asthma.

Good morning,

My daughter who is 7 has been on Singulair for 4 years now. She has severe allergies. We are going to try to take her off of it after it freezes, just to see how she does without it. If her symptoms return then we will put her back on it. It has made her allergies so much better. She also receives weekly allergy injections, which helps too. Our son takes Singulair occasionally for his allergies and RAD, but he doesn't have to be on it all the time. He does fine too.

I, personally, took Singular for many years with absolutely no ill side affects. The doctor started my granddaughter on it when she was around 4 or 5 years old. With the very first dose, she experienced terrifying hallucinations, and was "wired" and couldn't sleep for an entire night. It was very upsetting.
Point is, you just don't know until she takes a dose, if she is going to be one of the rare exceptions that has problems with it. Most children will be just fine and feel much better when taking it.
I should also mention that my granddaughter is seizure prone, so maybe that played into it, somehow.

I have allergy induced asthma and until recently only needed medicine when I was symptomatic (change of seasons usually) w/ asthma but this year my allergies have been really severe and I have been coughing since mid-may. Just three weeks ago I had to start Singular and it has helped dramatically.

My daughter has been on Singulair since 2nd grade, now in 8th grade, for allergies. She takes it every morning. During bad allergy season she takes Zyrtec at night as well. She sleeps very well at night, and hasn't had any reaction to Singulair.

I did ask MD about what time of day she was to take it. MD said if taking for allergies she can take anytime of day, morning fine. If she needs it for asthma, then it is taken at night before bed. So you may want to follow-up for definite diagnosis of hay fever or asthma. Maybe morning dose helps decrease chance of night/sleep problems.