Can you “smell” when your kids are ill?

[Countingdays]

Sometime ago, a friend of mine said ‘I recognise when my children are sick, because their smell changes’ - I remember thinking how odd at the time, but I’ve been smelling it since! Guess I never paid any attention to it before.

I can only describe it as a mixture of bad breath with mucus, but it’s very distinctive. Just yesterday, I smelt it on my daughter before any actual visible symptoms and lo and behold she woke up with a fever this morning!

has anyone ever noticed this?

yes yes yes - especially anything cold adjacent very hard to describe but they smell poorly

Yes! I'm a nanny and I can always smell when the kids I look after are coming down with something.

they just smell “off”…!

@Countingdays its defiantly a bit musty

Yes, my Dboys smell sour and my DD smells a bit like suncream and biscuits, she also gets a glassy look in her eyes, doesn't matter what's wrong, same smell and look everytime.

Yep. The Poorly Smell.

Yes. Especially when they have a fever. It's a very distinctive smell.

I’ve never smelt it on an adult! Must be some kind of evolutionary call for help 🤣

Yes

Yes, my DC's breath would always have a distinctive sweet smell when they were about to come down with something

Yes! But only one of my children which is weird. I can also smell when my husband is ill, and I used to be able to smell when one of my old flatmates was coming down with something. It’s very odd.

Yes. I can remember noticing it on my brother when we were little too. In fact, if he didn’t smell poorly but was off school I was horrid to him 🤣

Eggy burps. Eggy breath. Many many tears since I smelled it though. (Or anything but I still remember smells).

Yes. And my youngest smelt 'off' for years. Like wet dog. Turned out she was coeliac, as we found out when she was four - poor kid!

It got harder as they got older - they either reeked, or reeked of perfume. . .

Yes - the "ill" smell plus a certain look about their eyes. Classic tell tale signs every time they are unwell.

I think women and mothers have a better sense of smell in general, my nose power went through the roof during pregnancy, perhaps an evolutionary trait to protect us and our children.

Yes but only for my youngest - there’s a distinctive smell, as soon as I get a whiff of it I start cancelling plans and assuming he’ll be off school, generally get ready for a bout of sickness. I’m always right. DH claims he can’t smell anything different to normal.

I’ve never been able to do it for my older son though - my eldest was formula fed and I had bad PND and struggled to bond, whereas my youngest was breastfed till 3, co-slept till 5. I’ve always wondered if my bond with him is deeper/more instinctive somehow because of that and maybe that’s why I can tell if he’s sick.

i've recently read an article about a woman who smelt that her husband had parkinsons , really interesting.
I have a good sense of smell but not sure if i can smell illness.

No, never have been able to. Usually have a nose like a blood hound but this passes me by everytime. Weird huh!

Yes. Definitely on their breath. DH doesn’t seem to notice it though. Or he doesn’t recognise it as their ‘ill smell’ and just thinks they haven’t brushed their teeth well.

I can remember as a kid my mum would just look at me and say “yep, your eyes have gone; you can have the day off school” before I’d even asked her.

This is mine too. Like peardrops and marker pens. I actually really love the smell - but it is a red flag for illness to come!

I guess this is just a little touch of what happens when dogs 'smell' that their owners have cancer or something. Those stories are fascinating to me.

It makes sense though, immune reactions in the body result in chemical byproducts so I suppose it stands to reason they can be detected in breath/skin?

Yes! They smell of "ill". My DM can smell it too. Neither DH nor DF can.

With my DD, yes. She's gets this sort of biscuity/yeasty smell.

100%.. I can smell it on my little boy’s breath. My mum said she used to know when I was aswell with the same thing.