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 I can smell it off my DD breath lol it’s so weird never noticed it until I became a mum

Yes, like ketosis (pear drops). Every time

I haven't noticed a smell but I can tell by touch. Before they have a temperature or symptoms and even when the kids are happy and bouncing around they'll come over for a cuddle and I can feel they are coming down with something. It's different to when they are hot from running around or when I can feel a fever. The best way I can describe it is i can that the heat transfer between us is wrong. My husband can't feel it but I'm never wrong.

100% yes! I can tell when DD is coming down with something by her change in smell, she gets a weird musty smell about her which is so so distinctive. OH thinks I’m mad when I say it because he can’t smell anything, but without fail every time she gets poorly I can smell it on her a day or so before any symptoms outwardly pop up. So glad I’m not the only one!!

Yes I can and so does my mum . It’s a distinct smell , I often notice before they even have other symptoms

As a pp has mentioned, what a fair few of your are describing is ketones on their breath. It’s the smell of when the body is in a state of ketosis (og Keto diet 😂) where the body is breaking down fat rather than carbs, it comes when they’re sick and off food I believe. It smells sickly sweet, often described like pear drops/acetone.

Husband and kids, I can smell it!

I don’t have kids. But when I was doing adult medicine, I discovered I could smell whether a patient was going to die within the next day or so. So I can certainly believe that some people can smell if their children are ill.

I’m really not. You’re the one who said you feel different about your kids on a public forum not me

100% I can always smell when they are coming down with something. It’s a slightly sour, musky smell, and I’m always right on it.

My dad could tell from my mouth, he says I go white around my mouth when I’m unwell
I can’t see it but he can even now I’m an adult

Yes! Before I had kids I thought this was a load of cobblers, but it’s true

Yes, my youngest anyway, smells like peardrops

Yes! Finally a scientific explanation!

Definitely yes, especially with the eldest, usually before any actual symptoms I can smell it coming. It's not ketosis, it's not on her breath and not necessarily correlated with being off food. Just a general sourness but DH can't smell it.

Yes and you can also see it in some peoples eyes. My mum used to say I got a misty look, the opposite of 'bright eyed'.

That works with DH, as the stomach shuts down as part of the run up to a migraine. So if I notice the smell I can alert him to take his medication quickly to stave off the next symptoms.

Yes. I know, I can just tell, and smell.

My friend could smell when her teenaged daughter was pregnant before she (her daughter) even suspected

Yes and I can also smell when they are stressed.
Dogs can also smell pheromones, (and cats can I think), so maybe it’s a bit of that too.

😱😱😱

I knew the 1st time I held my youngest that she didn't smell 'right'.

I told the consultant and the other doctors. The doctors generally poo poo'd the whole idea, and said I was imagining it, but the consultant finally listened when I'd repeatedly said she doesn't smell right when she was 4 or 5 weeks old, and ordered repeat bloods on my baby the next day(I'd had an emergency CS 4 weeks previously which was at 34 weeks, due to her not growing and then not moving much, so we were in SCBU).

The repeat blood spot and blood tests showed she needed to be given levothyroxine immediately (and for the rest of her life) and to have further tests done, and if she had not had the levothyroxine started before she was 2-3 months old, she would have suffered brain damage as a result.

Eventually we found out she had a malformed & underdeveloped pituitary gland and a break in the pituitary stalk, but it took 18 months before we knew and she hadn't grown much at all so was still wearing age 3-6 months clothes.

But the point is, I'd known from birth that she didn't smell like she should've? And if I hadn't pushed the point with the doctors, they wouldn't have repeated the necessary blood tests.
It was only when she was started on lots of other drugs including growth hormones and hydrocortisone etc that she smelled 'right'.

She's all grown now and absolutely fine, but on drugs for life.

Trust your animal instincts when they show themselves, because they're always accurate.

Amazing. Well done to you for pushing the matter and trusting your gut. I do find that our GP really listens to how sick I feel the children are. I think it comes from her having buckets of experience that we are very tuned in, as parents, to their well being.

Not me, but fascinating others can!

Generally, yes