Does anybody have a child/baby with asthma and experience of using SINGULAIR?

[emkana]

Was/is it helpful?
At what age did your child start taking it?

My dd has just been prescribed the same thing but we haven't actually started it yet.
Would be great to hear if anyone else has used it

how old is your dd?

DD is nearly 9 and has been takng it for a few weeks - but I don't see much of an improvement but DH's asthma (& peak flow) is much better

DD's asthma is a little more stable - but her peak flow is still quite low

Ds is 22 months and has been taking these for about ten months don't know if they make much of a difference because all his medication was changed at the same time.

DS2 was 5 in August and has been taking Singulair since he was about two. He takes a little chewable tablet (paediatric montelukast, 4mg). I'm not sure how much it helps, as he is also on Flixotide (fluticasone propionate), which is an inhaled steroid, and Serevent (salmeterol), which is a long-acting beta-agonist. They are all preventers.

He was put on the Serevent when we returned to the UK from Singapore - before that he took bambuterol, also a long-acting beta-agonist, in a paediatric syrup, but it's not available here.

The two non-steroidal preventers were given to him to try to control the asthma without increasing his steroid dose.

He was hospitalised with bronchiolitis at 9 weeks for 5 days and considered a 'happy wheezer' until about 13 months. From then on, he started to have severe wheezing/asthma every time he got a cold - which was about every 4-6 weeks at that age. He was hospitalised twice more and needed a nebuliser every time he was ill - so he had a pretty hefty line in preventers.

But he hasn't had a bad attack for 18 months now. The doctor wants to keep him on the Singulair and the Serevent, but we took him off Flixotide over the summer. Have started it again now in the winter.

That is probably too much info, but thought it might also be useful to give DS's 'history', so you could see why he takes the Singulair.

Thanks singersgirl, that's very interesting.

I didn't realize there were non-steroid preventers!

Basically, the doc said that increasing the steroid dose would be the most effective thing, but would also potentially have the least desirable side effects. The Singulair only acts on one specific pathway, I think, and so might or might not be useful, whereas the steroid is more generally efficacious.

I read up lots on all the asthma treatments when DS2 was ill more frequently, but have forgotten lots of the detail.

How is your DS? Hope he is doing OK at the moment.

He is okay, thank you, but currently on AB's - unfortunately it seems to be the case that as soon as he comes off the AB's he gets worse again - we will have to see if it will be like this again this time!