Singulair and stomach problems

My son, who just turned 14 this month, was on Singulair for over 2 years.
He was diagnosed with reactive airway disease and possibly Asthma--and prescribed this awful drug-even back in 2004. The doctor said how wonderful this med was and prevents any further attacks.. So, for 2 years-every night, he took this mood altering, destructive drug. He lost all interest in school, his athletics-soccer, skateboarding, biking..in fact became almost a vacant , very unhappy, child-had stomach aches, joint pains and reflux--why--I brought him to the doctor and Pediatric center so frequently--all they kept saying his --his asthma is better, much be other issues...Even after the March 2008 suicide--his doctor said-that is just an isolated incident-just monitor him--It is a good drug. Right, month by month his behavior escalated to wanting to die, no reason to go to school-he said he was stupid and a failure and why don't I understand there is no reason to his life. A usually happy fun-loving boy -my son- didn't want to live. Nothing made him happy-I started to believe what the doctors said--maybe something or someone at school (bully, pedophile??) caused this change. Terrible nightmares and vivid dreams...Until this past July, I asked him want to go to the library for some books or dvd's...he went ballistic-threw everything off his computer desk and tried to break his chair. He is not an aggressive boy but this behavior was becoming a daily issue. Along with everything flying off his table, was his bottle of Singulair pills. It then dawned on me..I have been poisoning my only son. The child I know and love and gave birth to returned within a few days--although I am worried sick about further asthma attacks --all the doctors can prescribe is a steroid drug-asthmex or Pulmicort.. I cannot understand nor comprehend why this drug is being prescribed for children and young adults. The guilt I live with is terrible as my son has lost 2 years of his life--
and thought there was something really wrong with him-At least we woke up---in time--how about some other parents..thinking it's just normal adolescent behavior for their child or their fault???

I am a 50 year old women. I had bronchitis that turned into severe asthma.
Could not stop coughing. I have been on Singulair for over a year. Have had weight gain, Hand numbness,Stomach problems. Even had an colonoscopy but turned up nothing. Now I understand after reading all these posts. The weight gain alone was driving me crazy. Limiting myself to 1200-1400 calories, eating only lean meats and vegetables.Exercising and loosing MINIMAL weight over a 4 month period. I felt like I was doing something wrong. Ive thrown my Singulair away after reading your posts. Will figure out something else if my allergies and or asthma flairs. Just not worth it. Will repost after Ive been off a while.

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?

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.

First, I would like to tell you what my daughter used to be like. My daughter used to laugh, smile, sparkle and she loved life! My daughter was smart, as her pediatrician had been telling us since she was one. She sailed through life! Then we had hurricane Isabell come through, and she was rushed to the hospital in the middle of that storm for our first asthma attack. She was three at the time. We took her to a Pulmonologist, which she has seen since. She is now 7 going on 8. She was put on Singulair about 4 years ago. Starting kindergarten was pretty much a breeze. First grade came and she complained of headaches, stomach problems, trouble concentrating. Telling me "mommy I can't think". I asked her Pulmonologist, 5 times that year if it were any of the asthma medications. I was assured it was not. now we are in second grade, and she has steadly declined in every aspect of her life. She started having "eye darting" and head movements, which she was unaware of over Christmas. Her teacher kept saying there is something wrong, "but I can't put my finger on it". She retreated from family and friends. Since December we have been through a slew of testing. The first was an EEG, next came an MRI and lastly an 24 hour EEG. All looking for seizure activity. She has seen a pediatric Opthamologist. She has been through testing for ADD....this being the last. She had a serious reaction to an ADD medication last week. When my daughter asked me "mommy, why did God make me this way", the tears just wanted to run. I had no answer. My husband and I both feel that it is NOT ADD! Let me add some facts here...she can not concentrate, she can not focus, she has withdrawn, she has started to have anxiety, she is weepy one minute, and agitated the next, she can not stay on task and finally her grades are dropping to the point of retention. My heart aches for her, I feel helpless. I want to see my girl back, I want her happy smiling face back, I want her to be confident again. I just pulled her off the Singulair last night, after my sister left many phone messages concerning this blog. I have read them with the love only a mother knows, and the pain for each and everyone of you going through this. As I sit here and type this, I can only have hope. This is very difficult to write, and I am not even sure if I have written it all down. What I do know, is that at 2:00 AM last night I took the time to report her side effects to the FDA. Today is a new day, and I hope and pray for my daughter and everyone of you out there dealing with this.

Terry A

Hi, I posted 2 yrs. ago about this drug. I am telling you I am a stay at home mom and am around my daughter 24/7. I witnessed her going from a sweet, happy, out going, often called a social butterfly child to a child i did not even know. When she took this stuff for 3 months. it was HELL!!! I honestly thought my child was going crazy. She had stomach problems, anxiety attacks, headaches, red eyes,3 urinary tract infections, her legs hurt and seemed swollen to me, weight gain, ear infections which had not had since she was 3 (while taking this she was 8), nightmares, crying all the time, school teacher noticed it, dance teachers noticed it, they said she was very forgetful, and seemed spaced out. Her dance teacher asked if something was wrong with her. She has been in dance classes since she was 3 and has always loved it. She would call me from school and dance classes saying she was tired and her stomach hurt all the time. She is the type of kid that always has cared about the way she dressed and looked and always wanted me to fix her hair. She completely stopped caring and it was a fight to get her in the bath. So not my kid. The day she said mama i do not know why I am so mean, I do not want to be me is the day i took her off this junk against the doctors advice. I know 150% that it was caused by this drug. I will never forget what it did to her. I tell everyone i know please do not give your child Singulair.

My daughter was prescribed singulair about six months ago when she was 4Yrs. old, after about a month on the medication she stated complaining about stomach pain, headaches, and refuses to eat. She recently started running high fevers at night and has been very emotional. The doctors only had great things to say about singulair,it makes me wonder if our childern's doctors may be getting some kind of financial incentive for prescribing these medications to our children.

My 8 year old daughter has been taking Singulair for 4 years. She immediately began having sleeping problems. I never connected it to Singulair. When she was 5, she had a check-up with her Asthma/Allergy doctor. I received a new prescription and had it filled at Costco. She became more irritable and the sleeping problems persisted. After I had the second refill and had the information sheet Costco had given me, I decided to read the about side effects. That was when I realized she was taking the 10mg dose for ages 15 and up at 5 years old. I knew she was taking a different dose but it was new script because she had been at the doctors and I thought the doctor had just increased the dosage. I called Costco and had them check the original prescription and sure enough they had entered it wrong in their system and was given an OVERDOSE. They did pay for any tests for Physical damage (blood work and liver), and gave me free pills that were dispensed incorrectly. I assumed everything was ok now that she was back on the 5mg. dose again. She has still continued to have sleeping issues and her aggressive behavior has gotten worse. She has consistently had stomach problems, daily! A month ago I had an evaluation done for academic purposes, When the Psychologist was done he was saying she was a sweet girl. I proceeded to tell him about her violent outbursts. Just that morning her brother, 6yrs.old, was walking by her and out of the blue she took the pencil in her hand and slashed across his chest. I told him these were typical of the behavior at home and I had tried all type of discipline to no avail. HE WAS SHOCKED. He said that wasn't her personality at all. After talking to him a second time, He said it was probably a combination of her age, hormones starting to kick in and sibling rivalry! I knew it was more than that but still never connected it to Singulair! Well, as of today she is off the Singulair. I can't wait to see if her behavior changes. I see these posting go all the way back to 2003! If only I had thought to look online first!

My daughter who is 8 has been taking singulair for about 3 years. Her behavior has changed so much and the doctors said it was normal kid things......
She went from a sweet child to one who seems to have these horrible mood swings which cause her to lash out and say mean things, nobody loves her, she wants to run away, she hates me. She gets so angry and slams doors and acts like a child having a tantrum. She has had stomach problems which we went to doctors/specialists for a year......stomach aches at night/sometimes 24 hours a day. She has nightmares and wants me to sleep with her. She does not want to open her curtains because she thinks monsters will come in the windows. She has bad OCD related to germs. She now wants me to go with her when she plays at a neighbors house, she seems to want to know I am close by.
She is very independent and to start this clingy behavior this past year is not normal.
A relative is a doctor and thought my daughter has a touch of ADH but she is honor roll and very well behaved in school so maybe my relative is noticing anxiety in her. I need to call the doctor today and take her off this. I don't know if there is another medication to put her on or if she should be on it. She takes qvar and abuterol inhaler along with claritin D.
I just feel sick reading all these horror stories. I was being told her behavior is normal tantrums to get our attention. Now I know none of this is true.

My 12 year old soon has been on singulair for approx 5 years. He has had severe anxiety, mood swings, stomach problems, and feelings of sadness when he is left; does not leave mom or dad for long. I started checking into the side effects of singulair a couple of months ago and found out my son was on double the dose for an 11 year old. We dropped him to 5mg from 10 and the stomach problems have definitely eased up. This does not help the fact that he has missed 15 days of school this year for mostly stomach problems, test and doctor visits. My new pediatrician assured me his asthma was under control due to the use of this medication. THIS IS NOT MEDICATION I honestly am feeling like it is POISON. My son has been on this rx so long I don't know how he would act without it. My concern now is going into puberty with this medication. We will not attempt that....GOOD LUCK TO ALL

I went to the dermatologist and was diagnosed with a severe case of hives/rash. Has anyone ever been prescribed Singulair in combination with Xyzal for hives? He also prescribed Tagamet for the stomach problems apparently these two drugs can cause. I am very afraid to take this but talked to two different doctors that are telling me to take my medicine and are getting angry at me for not wanting to take it an are getting impatient with me for being scared about it and asking questions. I was also prescribed a Lidex cream that has steroids in it even after telling the doctor that I just got off Prednisone for a sinus infection last month and had a really bad reaction to the Prednisone (steroid). He still gave me the steroid cream and said "this is a topical you won't have any side effects with this and your reaction couldn't possibly have been from the Prednisone, it had to be from the antibiotic" If anyone has heard of or taken the combination of Xyzal and Singulair for hives or skin problems please post me a response before I go get these prescriptions filled. All four of these will cost me almost $100 because the Xyzal is $40 and the Singulair is $25, they do not offer a generic for these two money makers. I have insurance and still will cost me a hundred for all four (steroid cream and Tagamet as well). Please someone let me know about this combo and if you have been given for hives as well. I don't know why I am given the Singulair at all. It causes hives in some people from what I have been reading. I can see the Xyzal because it is an antihistamine, that's fine but the Singulair seems to be a cause of hives. Doctor mentioned something about H1 and H2 inhibitors or something but said it so fast and speaks with such an accent I couldn't understand what he was trying to tell me. Please help before I get really bad reaction and have to go to ER like last month with the Prednisone. Thank you and God Bless.

Hi. My eight year old daughter has been on singular for 6 months. She has had chronic stomach pains that she says feel like pressure. Her appetite is terrible. She always says she isn't hungry. I have to search for anything I think she will eat. She is very tall and very thin for her age. She grew an inch in the last year but gained no weight. First time her growth just stopped. No surprise as she doesn't want to eat. I took her to the doc several times and they think she has acid reflux and have given her 2 different acid eliminators ( which freak me out as well) Said she should see a gastroenterologist. We have appointment in March . I started reading this site and thought well maybe it's the singular. So I called her allergist and told them I was taking her off to see if that's why she has the stomach problems. They said I could since it wasn't a big trigger time(seasonal) and she wasn't sick with any cold or flu) She gets mild asthma when sick. Her allergist asthma doc thinks her stomach aches are related to the mucus dripping into her stomach. I have taken her off all meds to try to see if it could be the Singular. She also has been very tired and can't keep up in her dance classes. Her school teacher had to put her in the front of the class because she said she wasn't paying attention. She seems to lose it over anything that requires focus or attention.She also seems kind of depressed. She is worried that something is really wrong with her. This child used to eat normally and is gifted academically .Her tests results(taken while on the Singulair) went way down from last year. She was put in gifted pull out program from last year results but would have barley made it in this year based on her much lower scores. That does not make sense to me. Never has had attention or focus problems before. I will keep everyone posted. Does anyone know how long it might take to get this drug out of her system? Has anyone else had this kind of reaction to this drug? I also wonder whether she had reflux before but this made it worse? I had her blood tested for Celiac and general stuff and nothing showed up.I wanted to get the Singular out of her system before we see the G.I. doctor. anyway thanks, Elizabeth

My 16 year old daughter has been taking singulair for the past several months for exercised induced asthma. It has helped her greatly, no symptoms with exercise. No other drug has had this same result. HOWEVER she has complained of stomach pain, particularly after she eats. We had her checked out for other culprits of stomach problems and came up short. I happened to think that maybe the Singulair may be the problem. We took her off the Singulair a couple of days ago and can already see improvement. I assume this will get better when it is completely out of her system, as most drugs stay in your system for several days or even weeks. I can't believe that I didn't think that singulair being the problem, as we had both had strange not common side effects when we were taking Zyrtec. With Zyrtec we had severe dizziness as well as anxiety and bad feelings. When we initially told our allergist of the side effects of Zyrtec they dismissed us, however since they have had several people complain with these symptoms. Just because a side effect isn't common or listed doesn't mean it can't be. I believe that people with allergies and asthma are highly sensitive and things don't always effect us in the way it would with some other person. We must listen to what our bodies tell us. This site is a great source. It helps us know that we are correct in our self diagnosis.

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

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

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

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

I have just begun taking Singulair about three weeks ago. It has worked wonders for me. I am not sucking on Arbuteral every two or three hours. However, I have been having since last week severe stomach problems - lots of pain - like extreme indigestion. Has anyone else gotten stomach problems?

i have gotten a reallybad stomache sickness and with that sickness i have gotten acne under my chin

First I urge everyone who personally has experienced a serious side effect or had a family member such as a child suffer to go to the Food and Drug Administration's website and file a report. I did. It's confidential and it took me only about 10 minutes to complete. The drug manufacturer will claim that all of us reporting side effects never notified them. Doing it through medwatch notifies the FDA and the drug manufacturer.

I am the mom (guest number 13248) who hoped that Singulair was the cause of my daughter's behavioral, emotional and physical problems. It's been one week since we discontinued the medication and all of her symptons are gone. They are actually too long to list here. Her last psychologist said not only did she have adhd but oppositional defiiant disorder and since she was thinking about killing herself we may have to consider hospitalizing her! The emotional toll on myself and my poor daughter has been unbelievable. Two gastroenterologists couldn't account for all her stomach problems. She had a reflux scan, and an upper GI at age 5.

I can't possibly put her all the problems we've had, but once again, I urger everyone to be proactive and file a drug interaction notice with the FDA.

Then, maybe as doctors become aware that the drug causes these problems they may start notifying their patients. Doctors tend to rely on what the drug manufacturers tell them. I think very few doctors actually do any "outside" research on their own. To think how much agony would have been saved had two years ago the first doctor we saw suggested we take her off singulair.