Long term change in taste post covid, anyone else?

[Trevors]

Ds had covid back in May. Since then he has experienced intermittent periods where food has tasted unpleasant. It seems to be getting worse lately, almost all the time. Anyone else had this experience?

Yes, my son had no overt signs of covid but we think he must have had it back in the autumn. In January his sense of smell went all haywire, making eating really unpleasant for him. It has got better very gradually and it is now a lot lot better although not perfect. I hope it resolves itself more quickly for your son, its actually a really nasty side effect.

Glad to hear it’s got better for your ds. It is rubbish because he is really hungry but even things that he normally enjoys taste disgusting. At times even water tastes horrible. It varies through the day fortunately so he can usually find a window somewhere when he can eat.

I was like this with smell and taste for about a year after Covid. It was intermittent and very gradually disappeared.

Me! Constant horrible taste in my mouth and when I sniff. Sometimes goes but often don't fancy food. It's so grim. I am eating mints constantly. The only thing I have found helpful is using Otrivine nasal spray- the menthol one seems to reset things for a few hours.

Yes. I had it at the beginning of the first lockdown. My sense of smell is now completely weird - with many things, including anything cooking that includes onions, sweat and shit all smelling exactly the same - a bit like a rancid kebab. That of course impacts my taste. So now I can't eat anything that includes onions or garlic. Peaches and nectarines are suddenly unpleasant. And everything else just doesn't have the subtle flavours it used to and nothing tastes as nice.

Yep, it’s a bugger and such a peculiar taste/smell. Mine has evolved over time, I was fine with chicken, cheese and eggs for ages and then all of a sudden (about 1 month post covid) the taste was rancid. I’m still really cautious with so many things, onions and garlic seem common triggers but it does seem to gradually be getting better over time.

Yes - my DS had Covid at the end of October and his smell and taste went funny on Christmas Day. He was retching just from the smell of the turkey cooking, I was worried it had gone off.

He is still affected - chicken, onions and garlic are particularly bad.

Apparently it's called parosmia and occurs when the nerve receptors dont grow back properly after being destroyed by Covid (I think).

There are Facebook groups where the members are affected - it seems a pretty common side effect of Covid with wildly varying amounts of time taken for it to resolve.

Yes my dd who had Covid at Christmas. Coffee smells like diesel, for example. So common here (France) that you can have therapy to re-educate your sense of taste. No idea if this will work but we are giving it a try.

This article was one of the few resources I found that were any help. My son did the nasal saline rinse and found that it really helped although with a reduced effect over time.

practicalneurology.com/articles/2011-feb/dysosmia-and-dysgeusia-a-patients-nightmare-and-an-opportunity-for-learning

Me, still affected - onion and garlic! bad problem when you are a cook!