4 year old odd behaviour

[Fam23]

Good evening!

I will be contacting the GP on Tuesday but just looking to find out if anyone else has had similar experience.

My son will be 4 in a couple of weeks and has been on Montelukast powder since he was about 9 months old. He was diagnosed with asthma in August (not reviewed but through symptoms over telephone consultation) and was started on clenil inhaler, alongside Montelukast.

He’s been unwell with multiple sickness bugs and viruses over the past couple of months and hasn’t been well for more than at least a week in between. The week before Christmas he had a virus and looked awful - Grey pallor, sunken eyes and a temperature that required alternating Calpol and nurofen every 3 hours to keep it at bay for at least 48 hours. I took him to the walk in centre and they said it was just another viral bug. He went back to nursery on Christmas Eve Eve after being temperature free for more than 24 hours but then developed a temp mid afternoon so I had to go and collect him early.

He’s had no further temperatures since but still looks very pale, is very sensitive and easily irritated and is constantly asking for a cuddle (which is unlike him).

I’m wondering if it could have been a fluey virus that he had before Christmas that’s taking him a bit of time to get over or should I be concerned that it may be the medication that he’s on that’s causing his anger/ agitation?

Has anyone else’s child had anything similar recently or had any similar experiences if their children are on these medications, we’ve had no problems up until now. I’m just concerned about the behaviour changes.

I haven’t managed to get him the flu vaccination because they’d booked up initially and then he was constantly ill every time they called to offer another date.

Where I live montelukast has been withdrawn for children because of such symptoms. My children used to take it but could no longer be prescribed it. Definitely worth talking to your doctor about.

@Butwhichoneistheman oh that’s interesting, thank you for sharing this information. What have they been given instead? Were the symptoms reversible once they’d stopped, do you know?

My son tried it age 5 and I stopped it on day 5. He was waking multiple times a night having had extremely vivid dreams. He came in one time telling me there were snakes all over his bedroom floor!! It was frightening!

Thank you @mulberrybag5 I’ve found some interesting articles around the use of it. What is your son on now?

He has a steroid inhaler twice a day instead. No side effects.

They didn’t have the symptoms themselves, it was withdrawn across the region. They had a course of steroids instead and afterwards grew out of the chronic bronchitis.

@mulberrybag5 oh brilliant, thank you. My son’s on that as well but they said we needed to continue with the Montelukast too.

@Butwhichoneistheman oh I see, thank you. Is that in the UK? I’ll be interested to see what the GP says about it.

Although there can be psychiatric side effects from montelukast, there are other explanations for a pale and irritable toddler, especially after a run of viral illnesses. I think I would talk things over with the GP - they may want to check for anaemia, allergies etc or may feel that it is likely to be post viral.
It might also be worth discussing whether it is necessary for your child to be on montelukast all the time or if they could just start taking it at the first symptoms of a virus. For my daughter, montelukast is the only thing that works to prevent episodes of life threatening breathing issues - it is a bit of a wonder drug for some children.

@LovelyDayInnit yes I agree, and the fact he’s been on Montelukast for so long would suggest it’s more likely to be where’s he’s run down from all the viruses.
I’ve spoken to the nurse practitioner today and we’re going to trial him off it and see how we get on.
It’s a wonder drug indeed! It seems as though it’s other countries that have suspended the use of it.

Yes, it's definitely still prescribed in the UK. But the side effect list is quite scary, isn't it! Our consultant prefers to prescribe it to be used when needed by children (so when they get the first symptoms of a cold) but unfortunately the first symptom of a cold (when not on montelukast) for my child is waking up with breathing issues so that approach doesn't work for us.

Sorry your son has had such a rough winter - I hope the next few months are better for him.

Hi @Fam23 appreciate this is an older thread now but my son has just started on clenil a few weeks ago and within days his behaviour has changed completely. Anxious, worried about everything, bad thoughts, saying the strangest things, angry outbursts. We took him off for a week and his behaviour improved drastically. Put him back on it due to wheezing again and within 48 hours we can see the behaviour creeping back in. Just wondered if you ever got to the bottom of this?