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 I know what you mean, especially about their breath. I can also tell by looking at them. When you pick them up from school of nursery etc and you just look at them and think "uh oh". My H is always amazed when I can tell from looking. I'm sure it's an ancient skill - I bet other mammals can tell when their young are ill through smell.

Yes- it's something about their breath. Kind of sweet.

@Naughtylittleflea

Yes- there is also a woman who can smell a Parkinson’s disease. This is true.

Ah yes, it was Parkinson's. She noticed it with her husband and then realised it worked with strangers too.

Yes I often can. Especially if it is infection. And/ or a throaty thing

Yes! Me too!!

Thank you to the posters who said it smells like raw meat and burning - that’s exactly it.

Head smells like burning, breath/sweat like raw meat.

I wonder what the actual molecules are that are emitting that smell? Most peculiar.

Suppose it makes sense though; millennia ago fire and meat would have been the things we were drawn to/sensed most strongly I suppose.

@zombielady

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

Yes that was exactly the smell mine used to get when they were ill.

They must grow out of it.

@Rumdiddly

This really weird! In an interesting way.
Can you explain more?
What kind of vibration and what does it change to? Is it heat?

Sometimes it's linked to acetone, I think. That sickly-sweet smell...

Following on from the reference to dogs diagnosing Covid, this also shows that some animals can tell someone is ill:
www.theguardian.com/society/gallery/2021/mar/12/doctor-peyo-the-horse-comforting-cancer-patients-in-calais-in-pictures

Nursery teacher at the infants my kids went to can do this - couple of the staff have mentioned it to me when chatting, that she's commented "X is coming down with something" and then the kid's been off the following few days.

I could always tell when DS 1 was coming down with tonsillitis by the smell of his breath.
When either was ill their sweat smelt differently, more sour and when they were teething their nappies smelt
acidic

Ahhh good I'm not nuts then.

Put him to bed a few nights ago and was grumbled at for giving him some paracetamol based on him smelling ill Lo and behold he had nurseryitus/ snotathon for a few days. But have been ruminanting on being grumbled at so I can now do some crowing.

‘Poorly breath’ is definitely a thing. DD, now 16, even says it to me now if I get poorly 😄

Yes! My youngest is now 18 but I have always been able to smell when he’s going to be ill, and still can, he smells of Brazil nuts - it’s very weird.

Yes!!! It's like a sweet chemical smell, can smell an infection everytime

Sometimes with breath, if it's a throat infection, but definitely with poo for things like ear/throat infections. I mentioned it to a GP who said it wasn't a known thing for ear infections to make poo smell different, but over the years I've begun to think "what do they know".

My mum could. She always knew when we were Ill as she smelt “acid breath”. I think it’s a mother’s instincts kicking in. She was always right

I definitely can, was very vivid when mine were babies. I wonder if it’s specific to our own kids? I’ve never smelt illness on another child, but then I’ve usually noticed it when I’m putting mine to bed and snuggling up to them etc

Yes, when they were children.

Yes but only for one of mine. It was really, really distinct. You're not bonkers.

When they were younger I could definitely smell when they had an infection. I also just knew when they really were going to be sick as opposed to the usual tummy aches and grumbles.

@AnaisNun

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

I can do the temp thing too! Until I had kids I never knew my lips were such a good judge of temperature

I definitely could when they were younger but I’ve not noticed it for ages now so I’m not sure if I still can

@HariboFrenzy

The moment when they tip over 39 degrees and your mouth feels like it’s scorched

Yes! DP thinks I’m crazy. DS smells hot/burny when he’s going to be ill. I don’t mean this in a nasty way, but I think it’s probably something that men don’t have. The mothers that do have it, surely it’s a throwback to like cave man times? Like an evolutionary thing? It’s like if DS(4) wakes up in the night, I wake up a millisecond before he does, even though he’s in a separate room. Back in the day, I’d have had to do that to stop him crying so that predators didn’t eat us or something?