Anyone had parosmia for months?

[TickledOnion]

My DD age 9 got covid in July. No sense of smell or taste for about about 3 months and then parosmia for the next 3 months. She can taste sweet, salt and sour but not specific flavours and most things taste horrible. She has a very limited diet for breakfast and lunch and then wears a nose peg in order to be able to eat a normal dinner. I’ve swapped her toothpaste to an unflavoured one as that was one of the worst things.
Has anyone got better after a long time with parosmia? I feel really sad for her that she can’t enjoy food anymore. I know it’s not the worst symptom of long covid but it’s not much fun.

Hi, really sorry to hear about your daughter. Similar time pattern as me. No taste or smell for 3 mths, then distorted taste and smell. While it has improved slightly (can smell a few things properly) most smells and taste are still either distorted or non existent. I am 16 months post Covid. There are several Face book groups with members in a similar position, many recover quicker than me, you may find their advice and tips helpful. Some have found smell training helps. Everyone seems to recover within different time scales.
I found tap water offensive to drink which was a big problem. I bought a water filter to try and that really helped.
Hope your daughter recovers soon, perhaps a youthful metabolism will regenerate her sensory nerves quicker.

That sounds really tough Swan123, especially the tap water. Thanks for the Facebook recommendations. Hope yours improves soon.

I had Covid in September and although things have improved, I am still not back to normal. The clothes peg sounds like a really good idea which I might try. Some days are ok, but others are quite nauseating. I find that I have a phantom smell of cat food or burning most frequently. The cat food is the worst though, as it even seems as if I smell of it too and it pervades everything. There are also some smells that I just can't tolerate as they seem so distorted. Anything cooking in the air-fryer makes me retch. Christmas was miserable as nothing tasted normal, just a pale replica of what it's supposed to be.
All I can suggest is identifying the particular triggers and for now avoiding them, also trying to eat quite bland foods. Mashed potato is currently quite inoffensive!

Thanks Ashard20. I bought her some swimming nose pegs to help. She will struggle through some meals without it and can eat things like plain potatoes, chicken, pasta, rice and mild cheese quite happily. And she still enjoys chocolate. Minty toothpaste and strong savoury flavours like bolognese seem to be the worst for her.

@TickledOnion - haha - yes - nose peg, not clothes! I must have gone onto automatic pilot there! I find that meaty smells are the worst - I think that's why the cat food smell is so invasive. if I get too close to the cat's food in the morning, that is all I can smell for the rest of the day. It really does feel like it is in every pore of my body. I can't stand chicken at the moment but cheese is one of the things I'm living on presently.

My taste and smell are at about 40% - it's really odd. I only lost them entirely for 3 days but it hasn't improved in the weeks since.

The bonus is I've entirely lost my taste for sweet things and am leaving the stash of Christmas chocs well alone. I hope that stays!

I’m sure this isn’t the only mechanism but I’ve read about how loss of smell can be improved with vitamin a. People deficient in vitamin d and zinc also can have a worse sense of smell. Infections can probably deplete vitamins so I’d give your daughter supplements if it was me to see if it helps.

Yes,

got Covid may2020 when my taste and smell came back - can’t stand onions or onion powder

Even walking past a bakery doing pasties makes me want to puke.

My diet is 10% of what it used to be

@Rabblesthecat
Oh yes, onions are also on my list...and also anything in batter. Fish tastes rancid.
I feel sick just typing this.

My 9 year old and I are both struggling with this since August. Following for interest.

I smelt burning/ smoke for 9 months then normal service resumed

Yep, covid march 2020, parosmia kicked in July/aug 2020 and it's still with me. It's not as bad, but it does fluctuate through the month (seems to be hormonal), and it is still changing. I got huel for when it was really bad, and have a range of ok foods. I try what everyone else is eating, to see if I can tolerate it, but I end up eating a lot of cheese/plain pasta/rice/potato.

Meat is rank, chocolate is disgusting, and lots of veg are still bad (especially salad).

Mainly it's a case of keep trying stuff, and slowly enlarging what you can tolerate. The smell of frying onions makes me gip, but I can eat them if they're really well cooked. Weirdly there's some stuff I wasn't keen on, but now like, sweet potato for one!

It's horrible, and I hope she ends up being one of the lucky ones, and recovers well.

Following with interest. My mum and sister have been struggling with this since August 2020!

Following for interest

@Notoironing

I smelt burning/ smoke for 9 months then normal service resumed

I had very occasional phantom smoke smells at first but 4 months on and it seems worse. Did you get any advice or find anything that helped?

Yes, I have. I contracted Covid in mid-June. Chills, headaches etc for a couple of days and then I lost sense of smell and taste. It came back after about 2 weeks, but everything smells and tastes awful. Has become a little more tolerable since then, and I'm also on a very limited diet. I just wish it would go back to normal. It's honestly depressing. I can't even put a name to what I smell and taste, just that it's similar. DS1 wonders why I don't eat meals with him anymore.

I am a month in from my PCR I completely lost sense f smell and taste and have very slowly been getting it back. I actually thought I was completely back to normal until I opened a new bottle of mouthwash today and it tasted absolutely foul, I’m assured by DH it doesn’t and is minty but to me it’s absolutely disgusting so I guess I have some way to go until I’m fully recovered

Apparently there are some trials of Vit A for this going on

I have a faulty sense of smell as described above. Feels overpowering and things smell wrong. Covid in August. DS (17) still cannot smell anything but the very strongest smells.

@Piggywaspushed ditto!
Mine is getting worse. At first just a waft of smoke now and then which had me sniffing around the house for fire.
Now it's every day, worse in the evening.
What puzzles me is that my senses seemed to fully recover after covid and then went bad again 4 months later. I did have a cold at Christmas (neg pcr and definitely a cold), that might have been the trigger.

Mine comes in waves, too. I felt like everything smelled nasty this weekend.

Covid July 2021.

I lost my sense of smell for a few days. Gradually came back, mainly.

Then a few months later - burning. Car exhaust fumes all the time. For weeks.

Now, rotting fruit often. This is from fruit, perfume and toothpaste.

Id love to hear from anyone with a happy ending.

I completely lost my sense of smell after weird cough/respiratory infection in Feb 2020, almost certainly Covid. I’m a dentist and a high percentage of us had antibodies after the first wave and were probably infected Jan/FebMar 2020, like many HCP a lot were asymptomatic.
I would say it took 4-5 mnths before it returned to normal. The weird thing was waking up and smelling a burning/acrid smell every morning. At first I assumed it was from outside, we live rurally so a lot of neighbours have open fires and bonfires. I realised that this didn’t make sense because we were in the middle of a very hot early summer.
Anyway, fast forward to Sept 2021 when I had second dose of Covid, this time confirmed by pcr, same loss of smell but only for a couple of weeks but still had burning smell on waking as it returned.
It’s the first episode I frequently burnt food, was blissfully unaware of my teenage DS’s bedroom odour and must have smelled divine since I frequently reapplied perfume. The dog got off lightly since I couldn’t smell when she had rolled in anything.

CatAlice I'm sad to read your experience, but happy to not be the only one who smells smoke! Had Covid in Sept '21 and it's been happening since then. Not all the time, but frequently enough to be annoying. No one in my house smokes, but I wish my nose would believe that!!!

@StillCounting123 . Very similar then. Did yours come on straight away? I'm puzzled as mine has got worse sinceI had a cold. It was just once a week or so at first but now it's every day, starts around mid afternoon
Where I live lots of people have open fires so a smoky smell is common, at first I used to think it was real. I'd never know if there was a real fire now.