Thoughts on Singulair/other ways to control asthma & allergies

[JsMamaK]

Hi All--
My 28 month old son has a slew of environmental and food allergies (dairy, egg, all nuts, fish, & shellfish) in addition to asthma & reflux. We've been able to manage his health fairly well with changes to his diet (& mine for the 2 yrs that I nursed him) and with daily treatments of pulmicort and xopenex as needed. The last 6 months of so, it seems like he's constantly sick. He's just starting his 2nd round of prednisone in the last 3 months and the allergist is suggesting he go on Singulair. The side effects that I read about online scare me because he is already a tough kid behaviorally (who wouldn't be with all the meds he's on!) and I'm scared to introduce more medication to his system. Just a few side notes-- our house has hardwood or bamboo floors depending on the room, his mattress & pillows are encased in allergen free covers, his bedding gets washed wkly, he gets bathed every night to "wash the day off," and I do my best to keep the house clean.

What have other parents done in this situation? Has anyone had positive results with Singulair? And if not, did you "get your child back" when you stopped the medication? Anyone familiar with/have positive experiences with a more natural solution?

Thanks for your thoughts!!

[kjbrown92]

Do you have a HEPA filter in his room?
Does he still have reflux symptoms, or was that managed by diet?

[JsMamaK]

No, we don't have a HEPA filter in his room. I'm guessing you think this would be a good idea...

As far as reflux goes-- he takes 7.5 mg of Prevacid each day. We most recently tried to wean from Prevacid in December and he promptly starting have gross hiccups, burps, and even worse night-waking than normal. Put him back on and a week later, the hiccups, burps, and sleep were back to what's normal for him. We did IgG food sensitivity testing for him and 39 foods-including his known allergens-- came up (he was 14 or so months). I withheld all of them from him for 6 wks, didn't really notice any difference unless, for example, he drinks apple juice, eats apple sauce, and then eats an apple in the same day. I'm curious to know your thoughts about unresolved reflux at 2 1/2 yrs old too!

[kjbrown92]

I know I'm an odd one, but I'd take him off the 4 most common food intolerances (dairy, gluten, soy, and corn) and see where it gets you. Reflux, barring a physical deformity, is often from food intolerances. Some people have had good luck with IgG testing, others haven't (some say it depends on the lab). There are people on here who argue against acid-reducing meds for reflux, because there is the belief that reflux is from too little acid in the first place. Both my kids were on reflux meds until we eliminated their triggers. With my DS, it was milk and soy. For my DD2, it was many more than that (I did an elimination diet to determine them). When they were older, we did ALCAT testing on them (tests for an inflammatory response to food vs. IgG testing) and determined many more culprits (both my kids had a false negative that I knew was a problem, so the tests aren't infallible).

A HEPA filter couldn't hurt. When we had dogs a long time ago, before we realized that DH had allergy-induced asthma to them, we had 2 HEPA filters, one in the living room and one in the bedroom, and it helped.

If his allergy "barrel" is full, then his immune system is taxed and he will get sick more often. The more you can "empty" it, the better off he'll be (so no processed foods, nutrient dense foods, probiotics, fermented foods, etc.).

[californiajenn]

I have asthma and don't need medication most of the year anymore. I recently borrowed a friends Heathmate Jr. air purifier and it totally helped. Even though my asthma isn't bad, I still noticed a difference.

I, too, would remove the top 4 and try to get a good air purifier and see if that makes a difference.

Also, most asthmatics are low in magnesium and sometimes zinc. I would give him a epsom salt bath several nights a week too. Magnesium and quercitin actually stopped an asthma attack for me. Since he has reflux, he probably has low stomach acid so don't give him an oral mag supplement. It would lower the acid more.

[Mama Mko]

We use Singulair and haven't had any bad side effects. It definitely helped with the nighttime coughing (asthma) and A has been on it since 2008.

[Alyantavid]

My oldest was on Singulair for over 2 years. It worked very well. But I decided (before all the bad side effects came out) that I didn't want him on such high powered drugs the rest of his life. With the help of a chiro, we eliminated dairy and he's never needed any asthma meds since. He did have some behavior issues while taking Singulair as well.

[mbbinsc]

Welcome to the board. I hope you find information to help your DS.

I tried singulair (one dose) with DD...that evening was the one and only time she hit me. We do epsom salt baths and I have noticed her environmental allergies are worse on the days that she did not have a prior night bath.

[mamafish9]

Sometimes lots of environmental allergies can be helped by supporting methylation and histamine breakdown - so sublingual methyl b12 (not other forms), folate (not folic acid), magnesium/b6, and vitamin C. Methyl b12 in particular might be helpful - prevacid decreases stomach acid, which means he's probably not absorbing b12 from his food. (Not saying these will make allergies disappear, just perhaps make him less reactive).

You also might consider supplementing zinc - that can lead to low stomach acid and reflux if it's deficient.

[spedteacher30]

We trialed singulair with great trepidation about a month ago. My son is definitely more emotionally fragile than he was prior to the trial, but it is not so terrible that we needed to take him off. (He cannot handle Allegra, Zyrtec or Claritin AT ALL--those were miserable, miserable trials for everyone, especially him!)

Right now, he takes Xyzal--second generation Zyrtec--and Singulair. We've seen tremendous improvement in his behavior, eczema, asthma, sleep, and nasal symptoms. the behavior improvements we think are because the other things are under better control and his little body isn't full of adrenaline all the time, fighting off his allergies.

We only tried the Singulair because his behavior and emotions have always evened out within 36 hours of stopping one of the failed medications.

We're not 100% sure he has passed the Singulair trial yet, so will make a decision in a few more weeks.

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

Sometimes lots of environmental allergies can be helped by supporting methylation and histamine breakdown - so sublingual methyl b12 (not other forms), folate (not folic acid), magnesium/b6, and vitamin C. Methyl b12 in particular might be helpful - prevacid decreases stomach acid, which means he's probably not absorbing b12 from his food. (Not saying these will make allergies disappear, just perhaps make him less reactive).

You also might consider supplementing zinc - that can lead to low stomach acid and reflux if it's deficient.

: and Epsom salts for the sulfate. And beans/legumes for the molybdenum.

More environmental alternatives: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...a#post14604849





Pat

[JsMamaK]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great ideas! You've all certainly given us alot to think about and some very good starting places! He was gluten-free until 17 months old when that IgG test came back clear for all gluten foods. I'll have to pull it out again and check soy & corn.

Because of that state that he's in right now, I gave him his first dose Singulair tonight and will most likely keep him on it until I can get the foods pulled from his diet- or until his behavior makes us decide otherwise, a HEPA filter, and get in touch with someone about dosing the supplements (who do you turn to to figure out doses of zinc & magnesium??).

Thank you all so much for your insight!!!

[WuWei]

World's Healthiest Foods is an informative and researched resource about nutrients: http://www.whfoods.com/nutrientstoc.php


Pat

[justmama]

my 2 year old is on daily pulmicort to control her asthma. we never tried singulair because it scared me abotu the behavior changes and such and the pulmicort worked so well from day 1. this winter we had 2 bouts of pneumonia, 2 bouts of bronchiolitis, and 1 bout of croup from october to jan. We began pulmicort in Jan and she was a completely different kid. She has had a single cold that required 2 albuterol nebs and that's it. It's night and day. She was constantly sick before the pulmicort. It has been our saving grace because before that we were at the ER every 2 weeks for breathing treatments with a cyanotic kid in the middle of the night.