when do kids develop their sense of smell???

[blossom2]

I know this might sound a little strange.

But i think DD might have a problem with her sense of smell i.e. i'm not sure she can smell anything.
She's asked to smell things now and when i ask her to tell me whether she likes the smell or not, she doesn't really answer.

however she also as a runny nose at the moment - does that mean she has a blocked nose and therefore can't smell anything anyway.

hope you're not too confused ....

I would have thought quite young - can't babies tell the difference of smell between their mother and other women?

Having a cold drastically affects my senses of smell and taste though, so I would have thought that would be a big part of it.

How old is your dd, blossom?

blossom - I know for fact my DS can smell (he always seems to know when I've put bread on when he's been at nursery). But if I ask him if he 'likes' a smell - or what something smells like - he can't answer - just shrugs or says 'don't know' - how old is your DD?

DD will be 3 in march - should i be getting worried??? Its only now that she has started to want to smell things.

Babies are born with a good sense of smell - can tell the smell of their mother's breastmilk from that of other women's - from a few days old!
I suspect describing smells in the form of words may well just be too abstract a concept for a small child. I don't think it's worrying.

blossom my DS1 is 4yrs old and like someone else said - it's probably more that they don't know the words, or haven't got 'experience' to actually 'know' whether it's a 'nice' smell or not or what it smells of - I think that sort of thing takes a long time. I remember as a teenager 'some' smells (mum's baking, or when she made chutney I 'knew' what they were - but other smells I hadn't really encountered them so couldn't say what they were.

Also I guess a sense of smell is more 'personal' than say sight, taste or hearing. Although we all have different 'perceptions' of what things look like at the end of the day a ball is round. Curry powder 'tastes' hot, and a fire engine sounds like a fire engine. Whereas smell is different - I may love the smell of lilies, but someone else could hate the smell - if you see what I mean.

I guess the only way to 'encourage' them is to let them smell things (Ds is bizareely into this at the moment - wants to smell everything since they learned about 'smells' at nursery last term LOL), tell them whether you think it's a 'nice' or 'nasty' smell and tell them what the smell is.

DD is the same at the moment. wants to smell everything, even coffee from the freezer.

You're right, i should encourage it more and just talk to her about smells, and ask whether she likes the smell of something or not.

thank you very much .... i get paranoid very easily.

rather than asking her directly is this a nice smell. You could pretend to sniff something (if you can already recognise the smell without sniffing LOL) and say "oh what a lovely smell" (or however you'd describe something that smells nice). Then ask her what she thinks. She'll probably just nod - or copy exactly what you've said - but at least it'd be introducing her to a world of smells.

Don't worry about being paranoid - my eldest is DS1 - who was 4 last September - and things constantly crop up where you think "is this normal"