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.

It seems like a good thing to have then, having an inbuilt detection system for your children.. It has also been an attribute that some dogs have, where they can smell, or sniff out some illness that there owners may have.

Yes. I can with my DH too.

Yes, agree with pp there was a paint stripper/pear drops/acetone smell. Now they are teens it doesn't work anymore, but when they were little I could tell when they were coming down with something.

Ah I do the wakey up thing too. Even now he's 3 I'm always awake when he stirs. Always put it down to bad luck until now.

It's funny my lad always has had a strong invisible connection to us. I'm pretty constant, but my partner can be pretty emotional if she's cross or angry, stressed or generally pissy he's really unsettled and upset even if she's not vocalising it or even acting it out. He'll and come and snuggle with me rather than her its only me who can settle him. He was a really poor sleeper until 6 months and it'd get to her whereas I could just keep going so i always put it down to that being trained in to him.

Yes I can. It's yeasty and and a bit sickly sweet but with a something else too. I also kiss heads for temp and it always works.

My DP has two daughters and I can with the youngest, I go in and move her teddies before I go to bed and shut her door and there have been times where I’ve known she was going to wake up ill or come and get in bed with us and mentioned it to my partner and I’ve always been right.

I’ve never noticed it with his oldest but thinking back I don’t remember her ever being ill over the last 8 years of knowing her - other than the odd cold or car sick!

This is fascinating! I do think there are probably lots of primal things associated with parenting babies and small children which we are, generally, out of touch with nowadays.

I just said this to my DH yesterday - I had to go to work and he was looking after DS. Just after DS got up I warned DH that DS wasn't well and would need lots of snuggles because (despite looking fine) he smelled of being poorly. DH looked at me like I was nuts.

DS was under the weather all day, off his food and complaining of a sore head. DH is now incredulous at my diagnostic nostrils

Yes!

I’m another mother who can’t do this and hasn’t got a clue, I normally think “why are you being so awful today?” and the next day my daughter has an ear infection and I realise she was coming down with something. I console myself that it is genetic though as I can remember telling my mother that I was ill and couldn’t go to school while she shoved me in my uniform and pushed me towards the door just as I projectile vomited everywhere!

Yup, his breath smells different, sort of sweet and chemically. I don't necessarily twig that he's going to be ill though, I just look back and think 'Oh yeah that's why he smelled funny a couple of days ago'.

Just coming back to this to add that when DC2 was young, they fell in the playground at school. When I arrived, I took one look and knew they had really hurt themselves - it turned out to be a broken arm.
I also felt very strongly that when my DC were babies, that I would be able to go along a line of babies blindfolded and recognise my own by their smell.
I agree with PP that it's probably a primeval thing.

Yes! My husband thought I was mad for saying this!!!

Yes. Their breath and hair smell different.

I can tell when he has a temperature with my lips too, in fact I cannot understand why my husband can't! It's so obvious when it's higher, and when it's really high it's like he's burning.

Interestingly all of my 4 DC produce the same smell when poorly. It is stronger in my boys than my girls though, not sure why though.

Yes definitely

I wonder if it’s specific to our own kids? I’ve never smelt illness on another child

I can smell it on my partners youngest DD!

Yes, it is a thing.

Yes they smell like pear drops when they're ill.

I work in a nursery and I can smell when the children there are coming down with something, I'm usually right. I'm the only staff member who can smell it, if a child is behaving out of character I'll often be asked to have a sneaky sniff. Usually find out the parents have dosed them up with calpol and sent them in anyway.

Yes

Yes, I always could. It was almost overpowering. Slightly less so now that they are adults/near adults - but I can still smell when something's up with them.

Yes definitely. Currently expecting my dc to come down with something because their room smelled weird this morning, pear droppy.

I can also smell when Dp is stressed, he gives off a yeasty kind of smell.

No.

I must be a bad mum. I can tell a temperature though, but no smell. I breastfed them for the longest time and had lots of close contact with them as babies but no smell.