montelukast

My daughter is two and a half and has just been prescribed montelukast as an add-on. Although her asthma is very much more under control than it was before we started using the preventer inhaler she has nonetheless needed to have hospital treatment twice this year so they think it's not as under control as it should be. All fine - except when I read the list of potential side effects. Has anyone used it and how have you found it? I hate the idea of adding in more and more medicine but equally if it has the right effect it's obviously worth it. Thanks for any tips. Fiona

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Hi Fiona,

Don't worry about the possible side effects, I've been on montelukast now for 3 months, and I asked my GP for it, he wasn't keen but I managed to convince him that I needed it. He said all about the list of possible side effects, and yes there are many, but the benefits I've found certainly outway any potential problems and the only real one has been muscle cramps, and they have all but vanished now, so don't worry, but don't ignore anything that could be serious, as there are some that can be life threatening, but rare. Most side effects would likely show within the first days or weeks.

Hope this has a marked improvement on your daughters asthma, and peace of mind for yourself.

Chris

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hi my two and half has been taking this since february and it has made a massive improvment to him he has picked up a few colds but they have not come to anything and i personally put it down to him taking montelukast! is your daughter taking the tablet or granule type?

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Headaches and odd taste

I've been on Montelukast for 3 years and although I'm 33 I take the Peadiatric 5mg chewable tablets twice a day because I found that taking the adult 10mg once a day gave me migranes. I also know of other people who have had headaches with this drug.

Also the chewable ones may say that they are cherry flavour but they are distinctly odd in taste so I take mine in the middle of my meal although they advise taking before food.

Having said all this, they have been of benefit to my lungs so I am glad a perservered and got onto a dose I could tolerate.

Good luck and I hope your daughter finds them tastier than I do!!

Jen

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montelukast

My son is 6 yrs old and been admitted to hospital on numerous occasions with acute asthma attacks, had phnuemonia twice and also once his lungs collapsed.He takes montelukast and he has been on them now for 4 yrs now. He is had no side effects and takes these every night without fail. I personally agree that these do help and is made an improvement to his asthma. Although the specialist is increased his seretide inhaler twice now and he has the ventolin inhaler he still needs his nebuliser occassionally but the attacks have been less frequent. I dont like the idea of him having to take all this medication and wish this could be different but to see my son like he was to how much his condition is improved i would say it is worth it...

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hi fiona hope this message finds u and your family well i just thought id reply to your message about the montelukast tablets my daughter has been on these for a long time to her they havent made alot of difference and her asthma is still not controlled however i know other people that have noticed a massive improvement in their condition since starting them as for side effects i would not worry every medication has some and when speaking to my consultant he reassured me that side effects that are listed for drugs are not neccasarily the meds but when they did the trials for that med anyone with any symptom has to have it noted therefore it gets put on as possible side effects everyone i know hasnt had any while being on these i hope this puts your mind at rest

take care

marie

x

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My daughter is 8 years and has been on montelukast tablets (1 before she goes to bed) for a few years now. Her asthma improved when she went on them. She has had to have her perventative inhaler changed as her asthma did get worse at one point but she was told to keep on taking the montelukast and I do think it helps her.

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it was a no go for us

Hi Fiona, I have to say it did not work for us, my son who is 3 got the ""aggressive behaviour"" really bad we stuck it out for a month but it was pretty bad by then so went to see my asthma nurse in desperation and she advised me to stop it straight away it took around a week to settle down. However if I had the choice over again I would still have tried it. Most things are worth a try if it helps great if not you try something else.

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Hi I hope your daughter is getting on ok with using this and you notice an improvement. For my son it was effective but he had to be taken off it after a few months. To start with I thought nothing of his behaviour, usual terrible 2/3's etc but then after about 8 months he started to have serious psycological side effects! It came out of the blue and he turned into the most awful kid you would want to meet. Hitting everyone, saying he *wanted* to hurt me, self harming by means of hitting himself and extremely miserable.He actually seemed depressed!!! After a month of this I took him to the GP who stopped the montelukask and a few weeks later he was a completely different child. We had to yellow card the incident. Unfortunately his asthma took a turn for the worse within a month of stopping so we had to start from sctrach and change his preventer etc.But it is now well controlled again.

Looking at photos during that time you can see the sadness in his eyes and he was only 3 so shouldn't of had a care in the world.

Just keep an eye on any changes, even a few months down the line. Hopefully she will be ok, it is suppose to be a rare side effect to get it as my son did.

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This is interesting to read as my son has just been put on these sachets. He's only been on them for a few days but I will most definitely keep an eye out for the side effects!