Anyone Experience Bad Side Effects with Singulair?

My girlfriend had her 8 year old son on singulair for allergies. Short story is, he became withdrawn and depressed very badly. He had bad nightmares and didn't want to eat either. After a few months, she took him to the pediatrician, who linked it to the Singulair. There was a notice in 2008 from the FDA that this drug can have severe effects on some children. Follow your gut instinct, if you feel the drug caused that reaction I would not put him back on it. There are plenty of other options to try. Good luck.

Hmmmmm. I didn't know that was a possible side effect. My 15 year old has been taking singulair for 4 years now and he is now experiencing more "anger issues" and depression then ever before. I was blaming it on the bullying that was going on at school, but now that I look at it, it may be the singulair. I'll be seeing his Dr soon for his annual check up and we'll have to talk about our options. Or maybe I'll just call her. Thanks for the heads up.

My daughter is 5 1/2 and has been on it since she was 2 and we've never seen any problems with it. Our older one is 8 and she started on it at about age 6 and she also has no trouble. However, I have heard other people expressing the same concerns as you so it sounds like it is possible. The best course of action would be to talk with the doctor who prescribed it.

I had the same issues. We have since tried claritin for children which did not work for my son and now he takes Zrytec nightly. THANK GOD he's 6 y/o and can swallow a pill so he takes the 10mg adult version. But up until this year he took a 5 ml liquid form (chewable is a newly released thing since it went over the counter). I can't say they work as good as singulair but his behavior is COMPLETELY different.

Hi N.,
My son is 4 1/2 now. When he turned 3 1/2 his allergist put him on singulair for his asthma. He turned into a scary little guy! He would throw tantrums, hit people, and had really disturbed sleep. I love my little guy, but I would cry almost every night. So I started researching it-there has been a lot of complaints with singulair with young children. We took him off of it and now he takes flovent-3x's a day from an inhaler. It works great and if I know we are going somewhere when his allergies (b/c hes allergic to grass, pollen, trees etc) are going to be bad, I give him a puff of albuteral (which makes him hyper, but not aggressive) good luck. When they are this young, its hard to get medication right the first time. I hope this helps!

I know this is a late response but I just wanted to add that my husband used to take singular and it made him extremely irritable. Since he's stopped taking it he is much nicer (but we all have our bad days). I really think there is correlation between the medication and mood changes.

N.,
I havent had direct experience with Singulair, but my best friend has. Her son is 4 years old and was so angry and hurtful all the time. He would hit, kick and bite her when he got in trouble and she resulted to spanking. Then she heard about the side effects of the medicine and took him off. While he's still her most challenging of three kids, he is completely different. Kids show depression by being angry, which is what he was doing. I've seen the difference myself and it really did have a horrible effect on his personality. You are NOT alone!! Hang in there!