Asthma - looking for alternative to Singulair for 3 year old

[WhiteHorse]

My son is 3.5. I recently explored the possibility that his horrible behavior might be caused by side effect of taking Singulair. 5 days off the drug we have seen marked improvement in his emotional heath and behavior. His brain seems to be functioning again! HOWEVER, his asthma is back. Last night he did not sleep at all, wheezing and coughing. He uses albuterol but this doesn't really take away the symptoms entirely and sometimes doesn't work at all. Singulair was very effective at controlling his asthma and we never dealt with wheezing unless he had a chest cold. We rarely had to use his inhaler at all.

Has anyone tried any of the other preventative medications out there for asthma? Many of these are not suitable for a 3 year old. I am terrified I am going to have to put him back on Singulair. My DH would never agree to take him to a homepathic doc so I really would like opinions on mainstream treatments.

[lnitti]

I will be watching this thread.  I have a 3 year old who has seasonal allergies.  Last year she was on Claritin.  She had an "episode" that was asthma like a month ago.  Doctor said most likely she would have asthma and that we may want to try Singulair instead of Claritin to deal with the Asthma and the season allergies at once.

But I don't want negative side effects like terrible behaviour or anything else.

[WhiteHorse]

Went to the ped today. DS has a chest cold complete with fever which is why his asthma kicked in. I asked the doctor about alternatives to singulair but the only alternative is inhaled corticosteroids like flovent, which is what he prescribed. I picked it up but now I am thinking it is not the right thing. My son is very low weight and has almost no appetite - one of the main side effects of the Flovent is bad taste in the mouth and throat. That AND the fact that DS resists doing his inhaler, I would expect only worse attempts with the Flovent. I think what I am going to do is wait out this cold and see how he does with using Zyrtec for seasonal stuff.

To the PP, you would not know for sure what the side effects are unless you try Singulair, the incidence rate is pretty low so it may be that she'll be fine on it.

[mbbinsc]

We have dealt with asthma with my 5 yo DD (she also has food allergies).  There are many threads on MDC discussing singulair.  We do not use it with her due to the side effects.  When she gets a virus I will use the nebulizer with pulmicort and xopenex.  I like using xopenex due to less side effects and she can't use the inhled version due to lactose as an ingredient.

I have found some success with magnesium, so will use a cream or epsom salt bath to support her system.  Due to her allergies it is hard to find supplements (she is allergic to dairy, egg, peanut, tree nuts and shellfish).  I try to limit her sugar intake and to avoid artificial dyes.

[mamefati28]

Are you using the chewable singular or is he on the granule packets? The chewable ones have aspertame to sweeten and could be causing some of the behavior. We use the granule packets and a spoonful of applesauce- easy. Just something to consider. Good luck, I know how hard it all is.