Can you really smell a cold coming? Seen this post from Zazen...

[becklespeckle]

I was reading the Kleenex tips and saw this one from Zazen

...And if you smell nitrous oxide on anyone's breath, hold you own breath and turn away to breathe - their nose is making this gas to kill bugs they already have and they are infectious. Nitrous oxide smells 'cold' and metallic...

I always swear I can smell when my DCs and DH are getting a cold and am usually right, the smell is just as Zazen describes.

DH and my friends think I am mad - does anyone know the science behind this so I can be all knowing when I tell DH I am right?

What does nitrous oxide smell like? Cold and metallic?! Like a spoon or what?
Really want to know now.

It's hard to describe, a bit metallic like a spoon but also cold like the smell of someone when they have been outside...

I do get a metallicy smell in my own nose when I have a cold. And DH always claims that he can smell a cold on people. But then DH claims many things, so I wouldn't make him a cornerstone of your argument...

My mom and MIL both insist that kids 'smell ill' before they become ill. IME, they are always right.

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one smells it anyway!

Have googled but can't find anything.

I agree with this, I can definitely smell the start of a cold on my DCs.

I can smell it too but it doesn't smell cold and metallic to me, it smells more like antiseptic or pear drops or an aldehyde smell.

Me too, I can smell this. I can also smell when someone is hungry.

yes i get this, i thought i was just a weirdo, turns out i aint yippee

I'm glad so many others can smell a cold too! Can't smell when someone is hungry though!

Can smell bread going stale (when it is still soft and only a day old) and milk going off (before anyone else can). Wonder if it is in the mind some of it?

Or if some people just have really sensitive noses???

I've noticed this too, I can always smell my dc's snot when they have a cold, only if I gat close to them though.

I can smell when someone's "not right" although I'd be pushed to say I knew they were going down with a cold.

Nonickname - I'd be worried about the aldehyde smell, that's often associated with diabetics with poorly controlled blood sugar.

I can smell the weather changing though!

My eldest definitely smells funny when she is coming down with something

Not sure if I could describe the smell though! sort of animal-ly and rotten....

Yep I always notice a metallic smell to my dc when they are coming down with a bug I have even said to dp before that they smell poorly.

sickly sweet, morningpaper? like meat that's going off?

yes sort of sickly sweet and ... yellow smelling

Oh yes, sore throats make your breath stink.

my mum swears she can.when i smell them when she says she can smell poorly feeling on them(iyswim)-all i smell is a kind of daffodil smell.

sickly sweet/ rotting meat smell = volatile nitrogens, so similar I suppose to release of nitrous oxides.

yes that IS interesting, I would like to know

Because I say to DH "DD smells ill" and he goes

I can smell weather changes too Thumbwitch!

I am so glad I'm not totally mad

do you say 'tut tut,smells like rain'??

Ooh yes, let us know what you find! I have googled but haven't found any science to back this all up yet

well it seems to be quite a well known phenomenon in the medico-scientific world but most of the articles I can't access without paying for them . This one I can though. Haven't had a chance to read it but since they have tried to develop an electronic nose to measure gases in breath in order to make diagnoses, I think we can safely say it is real.

I googled in Scholar scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=breath+gas+illness+detection+human to get a list of articles that would be useful if only I could get at them! Anyone who has access, enjoy.