Ty’s been on the singulair for his allergies for almost a week now, and I think we are going to take him off of it. It did seem to help his symptoms, but it is clearly starting to effect his mood. Early in the week, I wasn’t sure if his crankiness and general irritability was because he wasn’t feeling well, or due to the medication. The singulair website has a warning on every page that reads
“Side effects vary by age and may include headache, ear infection, sore throat, and upper respiratory infection. Behavior and mood-related changes have been reported, including agitation, aggression or anger, bad or vivid dreams, depression, anxiety, hallucinations (seeing things that are not there), irritability, restlessness, sleepwalking, suicidal thoughts and actions (including suicide), trembling, and trouble sleeping. Tell the doctor if you have, or your child has, these or any other side effects while taking SINGULAIR.”
The best way to describe his mood this week has been “mercurial”. He could be fine one moment and then all of a sudden just have a meltdown over nothing at all. I have also noticed his sleep has been disrupted. We we lay him down at night, he has been spending a lot of time rolling around, apparently not able to fall asleep. And he has been waking up very early (4 am) and not able to fall back to sleep.
Part of me wondered if I was being alarmist and reading too much into it because of the side-effect warnings. But when I picked up Ty from daycare this afternoon, Kathy asked me “do you think that medicine might be effect his mood?” I had told her the doctor put him on singulair, but I hadn’t mentioned any possible side effects. So she noticed a definite change in his mood, too. On top of that, last night after his bath we noticed he seems to be developing a mild rash on his neck and sides and down his legs.
I have read a lot of good things about a nasal spray called “NasalCrom”. I will get some and we will try that instead.