ZYRTEC Reviews (CETIRIZINE HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 2.0 (1816 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare ZYRTEC with similar:
Type: Over-the-counter Drug
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Results are sorted by Age from youngest to oldest (reviews with no age reported listed first). Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 |
More on ZYRTEC: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR ZYRTEC | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 1 | severe allergies | My son has been taking this medicine for the last 3 years. He was a carefree, playful, and very caring toddler. However, over the last 3 years he has increasingly become violent, had trouble concentrating in school (his teacher kept asking us if he had ADD), and completely irrational. Nothing we did seemed to help. | When I starting thinking about the timing of his behavioral change, it kept coming back to the time he started taking Zyrtec. Then I found this site and read other parents' experience...OMG, I'm stopping the Zyrtec immediately. I hope to have my sweet & caring son back to the way he was very soon!!! | M | 6 | 3 years | 3/19/2009 | 1 | Allergies | About 1 1/2 years ago I started giving children's liquid Zyrtec to my son per his Peds. Allergy Specialist. After reading this site, its like OMG... the changes in him are from the Zyrtec. He used to be a happy go lucky kid, nothing rattled him, he slept through the night. Now he is angry and mean, sleeps poorly, having concentration problems in school, having crying meltdowns, being clingy. It's like he has become a totally different child. There is no rhyme or reason to his crying fits or his angery fits. The hardest part of this for me to accept is that I did this to him, I allowed a Doctor tell me there are no side effects to this drug. When clearly there is, my son was on 1 1/2 teaspoons a day per Doctors orders. (1/2 teaspoon more then recommend dose) I am stopping it TODAY!!! Hopefully by the end of April I'll have my little sweety back. Someone should look into a class action lawsuit, this drug is harming innocent children because these Doctors and drug companies are ha | To any parents who are considering this or have just started your child on this horrible drug STOP!!!!! You won't recognize your child if you keep them on this drug. This past year and a half has been a nightmare for me to watch my son turn into this depressed, angry, exhausted, fits of crying and meltdown child. I have spent the last year trying to figure out what has happen to my son, and not been able to come up with an answer. My family has just started family counseling because I have tried everything else. I will update you at the end of April to let you know how he is doing. | M | 6 | 1 years | 3/30/2009 | 1 | Allergies | Hyperactivity, moodiness, argumentative, irrational, loss of focus, headaches | We put my son on this for his allergies 3 weeks ago. He started having some issues in school, but we thought it was because he hadn't been at karate lately. I took him off the med for a week to see if it was really helping, his behavior returned to normal. However, we put him back on it 3 days ago and he had one of his worse days at school ever. I finally realize it wasn't his karate that was the problem (he's been in lessons consistently), but the Zyrtec. I Googled to see about side effects and sure enough, he's had very similar negative experiences. I also took the 20mg dose a couple of times and had two of the worse migraines I have ever had. I have a very high pain tolerance and I was actually afraid I might have an aneurysm, it was that bad. This drug will never be in my home again. I am rating this for my son as it is more important that people know how awful the side effects can be for children. | M | 6.5 | 18 days 10 mg 1X day | 4/12/2010 | 4 | Hayfever type allergies | My 7 yr. old daughter has been taking this regularly for about 5-6 months. Until this year we had never had any behavior problems at school - not paying attention and not minding teacher. This is the only thing I can think of that has changed. | The medicine works very well at controlling her allergies but I am going to take her off of it and see if the behavior problems get better. CAN SOMEONE TELL ME IF IT IS SAFE FOR ME TO JUST STOP GIVING IT TO HER OR SHOULD I SLOWLY CUT THE DOSEAGE? | F | 7 | 5 months | 3/23/2006 | 4 | seasonal allergies | drowsiness, moodiness - child cries MUCH more easily than when not taking zyrtec. | M | 7 | 2 weeks | 4/30/2006 | 4 | My child's severe allergies | This medicine is great | This is the only allergy medication that in my opinion, saved my son's life. He no longer goes through asthma, itchy skin, sneezing, when he takes this at night. Plus he gets a good night sleep. | M | 7 | 1 years | 9/5/2007 | 4 | allergies | NONE | My son has been taking zyrtec for about 3 years and has had NO side effects. He is a great student with no behavioral issues. We even get comments from people in public about how well mannered he is. It is actually the only medicine that keeps his itchy eyes and nose in check. We've also added an over the counter allergy eye drop by Similisan. We notice a big differnce within 2 days if he has not taken his pill. Thank God for Zyrtec. | M | 7 | 3 years | 9/23/2008 | 3 | spring outdoor allergies | irritability, anger issues, cranky, argumentative, rudeness, negative | We've had horrible behavior issues that last long for the past few days for no reason at all. Finally tonight it dawned on my husband and I that we just started giving him the zyrtec this week. I'm taking him off tomorrow and hopefully he will be back to his old 7 year old jolly self. It was helping his spring allergies,but we'll have to find something else because I can't deal with those side effects. Also it contains parabens in the ingredients and those are not healthy for humans according to my most recent research. Alot of beauty items in fact are advertising paraben free on the packaging. | M | 7 | 5 days | 4/29/2009 | 3 | Year Round Allergies/Asthma | My son has several allergies, eczema, chronic sinusitis, and asthma. I know that the Zyrtec helps his itchy eyes, itchy throat, and helps control his sneezing. | My 7 year old son has been taking Zyrtec for years for his allergies. He takes one tablet with breakfast and also takes two puffs QVAR (steroid inhaler). It wasn't until reading all these posts that I realized that so many of his behaviorial problems are more than likely side effects. He has horrible angry outburst, hard to get him up for school, will say he hates himself and that he's stupid. Has a hard time focusing in school. His teacher and I assumed he is exhibiting ADD symptoms. I even researched ADD diets and was loosly treating him as if he had ADD. I do notice he scratches a lot - but he also has eczema. I will definatley start weaning him off. He will need another medication to control all his allergies though. He's been on Nasonex and some other med when he was little(about 3yrs old) that gave him night terrors and sleep walking. Poor kid has gone through so much - but never complains. | M | 7 | 3 years 10 1X day | 5/22/2011 | 2 | asthma/allergies | my son was on Zyrtec at the age of 7 for about two weeks. It did not help his allergies. One day he woke up screaming with abdominal pain and a belly that looked like a 5 month pregnant woman. We rushed him to the hospital and discovered that he was completely blocked in his bowels. The dr said that this was caused by the Zyrtec. We took him off of it and within days he was better. | M | 7 | 14 days 5 or 10mg 1X day | 1/4/2011 | 2 | Allergies | My son's behavior changed so dramatically that I was looking into him seeing a child pyschologist. I noticed that his violent and depressive mood swings coincided with his taking the medication. As soon as I took him off of it he was fine! I was so relieved to see that others had the same concern. | M | 7 | 60 days | 10/16/2006 | 2 | Allergies | Aggressive behavior, disorganized thinking, increased anxiety. When my son stopped taking it he developed hive like spots all over his back, which lasted for about 10 days. | Our son is diagnosed with a mood disorder, so at first we did not recognize that he was having a negative reaction to zyrtec. In retrospect we now realize that completely destabilized while taking this drug. Fortunately, the damage was not permanent though it took him about about two weeks without zyrtec to return to his prior state. The manufacturer appears to be aware that this type of reaction can occur. If you look at page 11 of the 14 page document issued by the manufacturer Pfizer you will see a list of psychiatric symptoms associated with this drug. The company states that zyrtec is unable to cross the blood-brain barrier and affect mental functions. This may be true but it appears to me that the drug affects the body's biochemistry in some other way that does extend to the brain. Bottom Line: NO ONE WITH A MOOD DISORDER SHOULD TAKE THIS DRUG. It may destabilize a person to such an extent that serious harm could occur. | M | 7 | 4 months | 12/16/2006 | 2 | yes | Very cranky , hitting , yelling , shouting , getting really mad hard to control | I have seem many people concerns over the ZYRTEK , CLARITIN , SINGULAR especially on kids and read about the similar syntoms as i have seen for my 7 year old. But i never realized that those symptoms could be because of any of these medicines and as many specified the doctors or FDA does not mention these as side effects anywhere. I am glad that i found this site. In 2007 I was using an ayurvedic medicine for my sons allergies which was working perfectly with no side effects but then last year i took zyrtek again as it became available OTC and was a bit lazy ordering my ayurvedic medicine online. Now I am going to order it and would like to suggest it to moms who would like to try an alternative. It is called 'Septilin' by Himalaya herbals. you can also search for it on google. And I also suggest to teach some yoga to the kids especially to asthma prone. I tried with my child and i see a lot of improvement. Doing 'Pranayama' is good for this which is a set of Breathing exercises. And in that especially 'Kapalabathi' exercise is very good. You can also search in youtube for Baba Ramdev exercises and demonstrations. You can get all the info on the above by a simple search in google. I hope this is helpful | M | 7 | 1 years | 3/24/2009 | 2 | allergies/asthma | drowsiness, problems with attention/focus | My 7-year-old has been on Zyrtec for four years. He was having trouble in school. His reading levels were poor. This year his teacher even thought he might have ADD or an auditory processing disorder. He was going to be evaluated by a speech pathologist, and they asked me if he was on any allergy medicine. I told them yes, he is on Zyrtec, Singulair and Advair, when needed. She told me to check the side effects of these medicines. After checking Zyrtec, I read other similar reports that children were having trouble focusing, paying attention and reading levels were poor. I took my son off all medicines. There has been a huge improvement. His reading level went from a 12 to a 20 in one month. His teacher said he is volunteering answers during class discussion and is being more social. This has all changed since taking him off the medicine. His attention and focus is much better. Now that he's off the medicine, I asked him if he feels different. He told me he used to feel | M | 7 | 4 years | 12/19/2008 | 2 | Allergies | My 7 year old took Zyrtec for a year for seasonal allergies. It seemed to work wonders! His allergy symptoms disappeared. Not long after starting the medication, he complained daily of horrible abdominal pain. We saw countless doctors, looking for answers. Blood test, after blood test, X-rays, CT scans, upper and lower scopes, food sensitivity tests, we even saw an urologist! None of the above gave us any answers! We were left with a 7 year old with what they called "unexplained chronic abdominal pain"! I felt so helpless! We decided to stop the Zyrtec temporarily, his belly pain completely disappeared! I was shocked! I came across this site and could not believe how many others have experienced the same symptoms! This drug has caused so much you left for my family, something needs to be done! In the year he was on the medication he also experienced itchy skin, headaches and sore throat! | M | 7 | 1 years 5 mg 1X day | 4/28/2021 | 1 | Dust mite allergy | Feelings of sadness without explanation. Once we stopped Zyrtec, this went away. | F | 7 | 30 days 5mg 1X day | 8/16/2023 | 1 | Allergies | My 7 year old daughter took this for 1 1/2 weeks. I am sorry that I ever put her on it. She is a sweet, loving child who behaves very well. She turned into a demon child. She lost her apetite and would not eat anything at all. She complained about stomach aches and dry throat. She was afraid to eat or drink because she said her throat felt as if it would close up. | This product should be taken off of the market immediately. I spoke to several moms tonight at a PTA meeting and they had the same complaints about their children. My daughter would scream at me and tell me that I dont understand her. She would wake up and just start yelling at me. My daughter wakes up sooo happy every day. She was not herself in anyway. I took her off of it 4 days ago... her apetite is back x 10 and my sweet, loving, caring child is back. It breaks my heart that I put her through that greif. Never again. | F | 7 | 10 days | 3/3/2009 | 1 | Allergies | Facial tics | My son who is 7 has been taking Zyrtec 2 years. Within the 2 years I noticed that he was blinking his eyes a lot. It went from blinking to "eye rolling" within 6 months. The eye tic was so bad that I thought that he had Terrett (sp) syndrom. I starting looking on the internet and found this web site. My son also had night terror. I stopped Zyrtec and was wondering if anyone knows how long it stays in the system? He is soooo much better without this drug although I don't know what to do about his seasonal allergies (it did work for that). | M | 7 | 2 years | 4/3/2009 | 1 | son's hay fever could lead toasthma | Normally well-balanced 7-year-old son became emotionally unstable, crying and having tantrums every day. Vivid nightmares. This was when I used 5 mg instead of 10 mg as prescribed for my 50-pound child. | Tell everyone you know. Try to get the word out to the media (a la Singulair). I trusted the allergist. The doctors won't mention these effects. See the hundreds of posts from parents below! Be WARNED. What are these allergists thinking to ignore SUCH psychotic effects on children (like Singulair and who knows what else). We'll try Claritin if we have to have something. | M | 7 | 10 days | 6/4/2008 | 1 | allergies | My 7 year old daughter has been on this drug for about 3 years. It controls her allergies 100%. HOWEVER, lately, she has been extremely overly emotional - she cries at everything. Almost every day. After reading all these comments on the side effects of zyrtec on children, I am hopeful that this is the cause of her upsetting behavior. She will never have another one of these pills - we will gave to find some other way to control her allergies. | F | 7 | 3 years | 5/18/2009 |