How long can my child stay on Montair LC Kid?

Question

Hello doctor,

My son is four and a half years old, and he is suffering from reactive airway disease (enclosing the reports and prescription). Kindly suggest based on the above medication how long we can safely go ahead with Montair LC Kid. Is there any upper limit to giving this? I am very skeptical about continuing it in the long run. He is completely fine with this medicine, but if I skip a single dose, he starts coughing just anyway and ends up vomiting everything he had. So I keep on giving him a daily dose of MLC Kid.

Also, he is a bit aggressive and impatient. I do not know whether these are the emotional changes associated with this medicine. Please tell me that is he losing his natural immunity due to this.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Please note that the medications prescribed are, to the best of my knowledge. Montelukast has been prescribed for patients for prolonged periods extending up to even two years without any problems. It has been shown to reduce the requirements of admission and improve the quality of life in patients suffering from hyperreactive airway disease.

However, it would be good if we could omit the LC (Levocetirizine) content by just giving Montelukast alone in the form of a tablet, Montair 4 mg daily, instead of Montair LC syrup (Levocetirizine, Montelukast). The Levocetirizine component may cause dry mouth, sleepiness consequent irritable behavior in very few children if given for prolonged periods. The tablet (Montair) can be crushed in a small cup of water, and the child can consume the paste or solution.

Most of such cases usually get better with age advances with complete remission by the age of six to eight years. Very rarely, this may persist for 10 years. If it continues until the age of 10 to 12 years, it may progress into asthma in adulthood.

I hope that you get your answer.

Please let me know if you need any help.

Thank you.

Answer 2

Hello,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

As I have said previously, in very few children, I have seen that the Levocetirizine component causes dry mouth, sleepiness, and consequent irritable behavior. Taking into consideration that you have mentioned that your child is a bit aggressive and impatient, these factors suggest that the LC component is causing some irritability or it might be that the child has fallen ill recurrently to the point that he is now agitated. Either way, stopping the LC component will benefit.

Now the next question is, how do we shift the child to Montair from Montair LC? The solution to this is we alternate the child every day between tablet Montair (5 mg) and syrup. Montair LC and see how things go. Slowly over a period of two weeks increase the number of times you are giving Montair and reduce the number of times you are giving Montair LC. This should take place over a period of four weeks to a point where Montair LC is stopped, and the child will be fine.

I hope that you get your answer.

Please let me know if you need any help.

Thank you.