Am i the only one who can smell colds ??

[JontyMyers]

In public numerous times especially in winter and i can smell it. That weird smell when someone is all bunged up with cold am i the only one who can smell it ??!?? DH thinks im nuts when i push him away because i dont want to smell his cold he insists he cant smell it on people so can anyone else or i do i have some magic sort of nose

Nope I smell it too. Especially with my dc, I can smell they are going to be ill before they actually are ill.

I can smell it on the kids if they are very bunged up yes!

No, there is a definite smell, especially on small children. It's not the cold virus itself you are smelling though, it's the smell of all the gunk and snot in infected sinuses and manky tonsils and the effects of dehydration on the breath etc.

That's what I think, anyway. not that I'm a doctor or anything.

Me too, I read that different illnesses have different smells- think kidney disease makes you smell of urine and liver is a fishy smell.

I know the coldy smell

Oh thank god im not mental it is a disgusting smell though its almost a phobia of mine especially on public transport when its wafting around the bus and i always always get a cold the day after feel like saying to them their is a spray you to prevent a cold before it gets to the point of spreading

I can tell when DS is going to be ill by the smell, not other people though

I think chicken pox has a very distinctive smell.

They are training dogs to detect some cancers using smell.

I can smell colds as well. I always think it's a sweet sickly smell and reminds me pear drops .

I can't usually smell it on anyone other than my nearest and dearest - I don't usually get that close to total strangers on public transport!

I can smell it too. In fact, the various stages have different smells to me. What is amazing, though, is that I can always smell cucumber when I am getting better, and last month, when DS was getting over a cold, he told me that he could smell cucumber!

I have a terrible sense of smell. DH always laughs at me because I can't smell many things he can, but I can always smell illness on my DCs.

I can smell when DP or DD are ill. Not noticed it on other people - not that I imagine I'm close enough to sniff them that often!

I've never heard of people smelling a cold before I have what i think is sinusitis at the moment so might ask DP to take a good whiff when hes home

Jonty have to ask the (to me) obvious - why don't you use the spray yourself to stop the cold taking hold in you when you smell it?

DS's breath has a particular smell when he's poorly - I'd assumed the same as Fellreturneth

What is the coldy smell? I can often smell that people's breath is worse than normal when they've got a cold (as I guess people are often dehydrated by the running nose, fever etc and this dries out the mouth, or something). But I don't think breath is the smell you're talking about, is it?

I think this is normal. Quite a lot of illnesses have a distinctive smell.
I can smell STIs, in fact I can tell a couple of them apart just by the smell, which is very handy in my line of work :)
Diarrhoea is the same, I'll bet there are millions of nurses who can tell what's caused it, just by the smell.

You can SMELL STI's? Are we talking during an examination here or sitting next to them on a bus?

Yy to pear drops

I can smell it too. My sister thought I was mad when I said that someone breathed right in my face and I could smell they had a cold.

What Moomin said?!?

I can smell a general cloying, heavy smell on people with colds, can't think now if it's sweet or not.

I can sniff out an ear infection from across the room as well.

Yep i smell it... Mind you I think in colour and sounds so I'm strange!!

i can smell colds and when ds is ill often before he feels poorly

and when ds has an ear infection before it has started hurting i can smell it