Can you smell if your kids are getting sick?

[BanjoMango]

Just saw a random video of a woman that claimed that she could smell when her children were sick/ getting sick and apparently after a poll she said the results were 50/50.

So I thought what better place to ask than here?

I can smell it on on DC and also DH.

Mostly yes, as said above their breath and just generally them smell off

Yes 100% accurate, also can tell from his pulse.

Yes, it's a bit like that smell when you've been the in the house and they're outside for a couple of hours. When they come in you can smell the 'outside' smell on them. That's also slightly metallic, but has definite differences to the sickness metallic smell.

Yes. I can smell my mum as well.

The smell of a throat infection, or tonsillitis is very distinctive. I could always smell it on kids I was teaching.

Yes I can, even now they are teens.

Yes, it's a sweet, quite musty smell. A bit like bread dough. DH always thought I was mad but we discussed it at a family setting and several other mums said they could too

Can’t smell it but can tell by the colour in their face. They are older now and the day before their periods start I usually ask if they are ok as they look off to me.

I can't smell my kids I can smell like a normal person - I haven't lost my sense of smell - but I don't know what my kids smell like any more than I really know what I smell like (BO aside, obviously). I doubt I could positively identify their clothing if someone laid out identical stuff worn by them or other children - I'd have to do it by the other clothes smelling at all, rather than by my kids' clothing smelling of them. It makes me sad.

Yeah sometimes on his breath, it's not like the Ketosis smell that I get when I'm low carbing but it's strange kind of sickly sweet/metallic-y smell

I can smell illness on one of my children but not the other. Can also smell it on my husband, and I used to be able to smell it on one of my three housemates at uni. No idea why?!

Yes I could always smell when my children were sick.

I was having this exact convo last week with my 9 year old. I told her she was coming down with something and she asked how I know that and I said because she smells weird 😂a funny conversation ensued but the next day she had a sick bug so I guess I was right after all!

For a counterpoint, no.
Except if it's tonsillitis, but that is a very distinctive one and changes the breath smell.
An viral URI or any other infection, no.

Yes always - their breath and sometimes just their skin. They couldn't fool me! 😂

Yes I can always smell it on my little boy as he's coming down with something and - since I had my little boy - I can sometimes smell when my partner is coming down with something too. It's a very weird 'superpower' I seem to develop after I gave birth. Odd but must be some biological reason I guess.

Yes and DH can.

I would have said not the teens too but I think you're just naturally a bit less cuddly with them? DS1 leaned in behind me to reach the tap today while I was doing the dishwasher and I caught a whiff of his breath and it reeked. (That might also have been that he hasn't brushed his teeth I suppose!)

Yes it's a sweet smell, my husband thinks I'm odd when I say I can smell they are ill!

Yes it does smell like pear drops and also my sons exzema always flares up when he’s getting poorly.

Yes with DD, not so much with DS.

I thought this was just me!!

DH always says it makes absolutely no sense and he can't smell anything but I definitely can

Yes I can and often before DS6 says he doesn't feel well.

Certainly can when it's D&V...

I always smelt it as a doughy smell only way I can describe it. Don't now they are oolfer.