My children have used pulmicort and advair. The only issue we had was with weight gain. DS had issues gaining weight while on advair but easily gained weight after discontinuing advair and his lung function is still stable. DD had no issues with either drug. DS used advair for 5 years, pulmicort for 1, DD used pulmicort for 3, advair for 3. Their dose of pulmicort was the same but she was on the lowest dose of advair (100), he was on the highest (500).
FWIW, symbicort and flovent aren't comparable. Symbicort contains 2 meds - budesonide (inhaled steroid-basically pulmicort) and formoterol (long-acting bronchodilator.) Flovent is an inhaled steroid only. Symbicort IS comparable to advair. Advair contains flutacasone (inhaled steroid-basically flovent) and salmeterol (a long-acting bronchodilator similar to formoterol.)