Change in flavor of food...

Help. Jae has lost taste for any food. She gets her favorite foods, then doesn't want to eat due to it not tasting right or tasting badly.

Currently her meds are 6MP, escitalopram, Symbicort, Flonase, Claritin, B complex, vitamin D, and bone nutrient supplement (mag, calcium and D).

Any ideas what could be causing this?

I would blame the lexapro first
Since it can decrease appetite
More common in higher doses 20 mg vs 10 mg
Also if the dose was increased typically takes two weeks to settle but some things still stick around .
Any Flagyl /cipro recently ???
That makes everything taste bad per Ds
Could be something new and nothing to do with meds especially if she has been in them a while
Not good t hear but ......

my little penguin said:

I would blame the lexapro first
Since it can decrease appetite
More common in higher doses 20 mg vs 10 mg
Also if the dose was increased typically takes two weeks to settle but some things still stick around .
Any Flagyl /cipro recently ???
That makes everything taste bad per Ds
Could be something new and nothing to do with meds especially if she has been in them a while
Not good t hear but ......

Click to expand...

Lexapro is her newest med. I think she's been on it 3 weeks? I was kinda leaning that way, but didn't want to hear that as she's been through two other antidepressants that she couldn't tolerate for other side effects. She is only on 10 mg... It has seemed to keep her out of the dumps emotionally though...

I would wait a bit if it's only been three weeks but let psych know
It can take a while to adjust
If she only started at 5 mg and then increased she wouldn't have been on the 10 mg very long
Lexapro is funny in some it increases appetite others decreases it
Has she been on 10 mg the entire time or start at 5 mg

It takes time to build up and for her system toget used to it
Also is she taking it in the morning vs evening ?
Some do better wth morning and other evening very individual

I agree it is probably the Lexapro. Call her doctor tomorrow.

Lexapro does have some funny side effects. My daughter feels better when she takes it in the morning. You could also try decreasing the dose -- we did 7.5 mg for a while.

I'd check with her psychiatrist - they might have some ideas.

I'm a pharmacist. My advice would be to make sure Jae rinses her mouth after using
Symbicort or Flonase. Steroids such as these are one of the listed medication types
that have the potential to alter the sense of taste. This is called dysgeusia.

my little penguin said:

I would wait a bit if it's only been three weeks but let psych know
It can take a while to adjust
If she only started at 5 mg and then increased she wouldn't have been on the 10 mg very long
Lexapro is funny in some it increases appetite others decreases it
Has she been on 10 mg the entire time or start at 5 mg

It takes time to build up and for her system toget used to it
Also is she taking it in the morning vs evening ?
Some do better wth morning and other evening very individual

Click to expand...

She has been on 10 mg the entire time. She has also been off balance and sometimes falls down if she gets up too quickly. She is still depressed and gets overwhelmed when she thinks of trying to do school in a few weeks. That is even with homeschooling the minimum. She hates her life. She usually takes her Lexapro in the mornings but last night she took it in the evening but still experienced low appetite and her food not tasting right. She can't sleep well either, and I am not sure if the med made that worse.

jmiller said:

I'm a pharmacist. My advice would be to make sure Jae rinses her mouth after using
Symbicort or Flonase. Steroids such as these are one of the listed medication types
that have the potential to alter the sense of taste. This is called dysgeusia.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I thought about that too. I will reemphasize that to her.

I'm so sorry that Jae is dealing with so many hard things right now, and I hope that things get better soon.

It usually takes Lexapro about 6 weeks to work, so tell Jae to hang in there!

I did not notice a change in taste of food with 10mg, and I take it with lunch. It also increased my appetite a lot. If anything, I don't get the "full" feeling or it isn't as noticeable. I put on 20lbs my first year on that medication which pushed me from underweight to average. I definitely have to watch more closely so it doesn't get out of hand.

CrohnsFighter said:

I did not notice a change in taste of food with 10mg, and I take it with lunch. It also increased my appetite a lot. If anything, I don't get the "full" feeling or it isn't as noticeable. I put on 20lbs my first year on that medication which pushed me from underweight to average. I definitely have to watch more closely so it doesn't get out of hand.

Click to expand...

Too bad that wasn't the case for Jae. I cut her dose in half to 5 mg last night and she said that her dysgeusia went away but she still didn't have an appetite. Maybe that will improve too.

Does it mess with your sleep?

CarolinAlaska said:

Too bad that wasn't the case for Jae. I cut her dose in half to 5 mg last night and she said that her dysgeusia went away but she still didn't have an appetite. Maybe that will improve too.

Does it mess with your sleep?

Click to expand...

Honestly it has not affected my sleep. I hope there is an alternative that will work better for Jae if this med is truly the cause.

It messed with my daughter's sleep in the beginning (we think -- she has sleep issues anyway, so it's REALLY hard to know). We moved her dose to the morning and over time, the sleep problems got better.

Her doctor said it was more likely to make people too sleepy than to cause insomnia though.

I'm so sorry she (and you) are dealing with so many challenges.

She is lucky to have you as her mom helping her walk through it all, one day at a time.

I hope to hear things turn in better direction with appetite and depression.

I'm really sorry that you guys are dealing with these challenging issues. Losing your taste for your favorite foods is no fun at all.

Does she have a reduced sense of taste, a distorted sense of taste and/or a change in appetite? Do any foods still taste good? Is her ability to smell affected?

Exercise can be really helpful for depression if she can manage it (or maybe she's already doing some?). I know that Mg and Zinc supplementation have been used for depression in some studies. Has she had these checked to see if they are normal? Zinc deficiency can affect taste.

Is the loss of balance associated with getting up quickly or something different? If it is an isolated symptom, I would definitely let her doctor(s) know.

Thinking of you and hoping she is feeling better soon.

She says she has reduced sense of taste (no flavor) to all foods, and no appetite. The lack of taste has improved the past couple of days but not the appetite. She can smell. She hasn't been doing her Symbicort or Flonase for a couple of days, and we changed her Lexapro to 5 mg and at evening instead of morning.

Loss of balance is usually when she first gets up. She hasn't fallen in the last week, but may lean on a wall or sit back down or she runs into things clumsily. I think her bone supplement has both magnesium and zinc in them, but we can ask to check them at her next blood draw.

Why you stop symbicort and Flonase ?? Especially symbicort for asthma ?
We were told for our kids switching to another med is an option or lower dose but flat out stopping could trigger a severe asthma flare fairly quickly 1-2 weeks from stopping the meds.
We have weaned down from advair for both kids to Flovent and then back up or down numerous times. Added Singulair etc...

Is her pulmonolgist aware she stopped symbicort??
Flonase will just result in postnasal drip and stuff nose/sore throat if you stop.

Forgot to mention the one side effect that was noticeable for me was sweating. I used to rarely sweat at all even in the summer outside. Minimal work (even standing around) will now cause me to sweat like crazy.

FWIW, I have used Claritin (and similar meds) and have found it gives me all the symptoms you describe. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth (can't remember if it also affected the taste of foods), decreases my appetite and there is no way I can sleep after taking it (even if I do fall asleep, I wake up often and have a tough time falling back to sleep).

They also give me a buzzy/tingling sensation in my head/scalp.

This happens to me even with the 'night time' formulation of these meds.

I avoid them as much as possible and, if I absolutely have to have one, I take 1/2 the dose and only before noon.


However, during times of bad allergies, I did find that if I continued using the meds, the symptoms did eventually lessen.