Can you smell when your child is ill?

[TomRaider]

Okay is it just me?

But I can smell when my child is ill. Ever since he was about 8 weeks old I can smell when he's coming down with something be it a cold, cough, chicken pox, hfm, stomach upset even when he had cellulitis. I think it is more the fever I can smell but I can detect it sort of before he becomes feverish.

Everyone thinks I'm nuts. A very nice GP listened to me and clearly thought I was bonkers and a hospital nurse once seemed interested but didn't say anything to say it was common.

The smell is usually when he snuggles up close and I get to smell his breath but I can sort of pick it up on his general person. The smell I can only describe as being a bit like raw, but fresh chicken. Or old fashioned butchers shop.

What seems odd is that I don't really have a particularly good sense of smell and suffer with blocked sinuses and sinusitis and allergic rhinitis. Though I doo have a keen sense if smell for bull...... And bacon sandwiches.

That said smells are probably one of the most powerful things that can take me back to childhood if I get a whiff of something particular.

Yes, their breath stinks and their heads smell a little bit....yeasty??

I can, but only for tonsillitis. The infection changes the smell of their breath.

Yes.

I can but I have super smell sense anyway, which can be a bit of a curse at times

Yes, when both of mine are poorly, which doesn't happen often, they get a weird varnish/paint stripper smell on their breath!

My mum could always do this for us as kids. My baby hasn’t been ill yet so I don’t know if I can. I did read though that in a lab test, a group of mothers were all able to identify their baby’s dirty nappy by smell - so there must be something in it!

Yes, when my two were little I could always smell when they were going to be ill, sort of a metallic, chemically smell.

yes their breath smells different. I can't describe the smell but it's different to normal.

Yes.

Yup I can too

Yes!

With DC1, not so much, but DC2, I knew when they were 'brewing something'. They just smelt different to their usual smell. It was quite handy!

Yes.

DS was a very sickly baby/toddler and suffered terribly with tonsillitis and chest infections in particular. I could tell from the minute he got a new infection, and would
be at the GP telling them he had tonsillitis or bronchitis again. They’d say it was too early to tell “his throats just slightly red” or “it’s just a sniffle”. Lo and behold, every time we’d end up back there 3 days later with a very poorly baby and a doctor either
Sending us to hospital or writing a prescription.

I could just smell it on him.

Can also tell his temp to within .1 or .2 of a degree just by kissing his forehead. That used to freak the nurses at the hospital out terribly

Yes

Mine are adults now but used to smell of pear drops when poorly.

Yup. I can smell when mine are ill. Walked in to DDs bedroom a few weeks back and knew she was rough before she even woke up and told me.

Yes! Always smells different to usual when he's poorly. It's weird.

Yes I can! He gets a weird sort of chemical smell. I can smell all sorts though, every bin in a 2 mile radius

No but im sending this thread to my sister, she said this once years ago and we all still take the piss out of her for it but so many seem to be able to!
She will be crowing

@Jasminesmellingcandles, that was it!

Yep.
My mum still can when I’m ill and I’m 43.

Yes 100 percent!!

Yes and I always use that sense of smell as part of my assessment when dealing with an ill child.

Yes

Yes :)