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.

As a olfaction researcher, this is definitely a thing: until modern medicine, the smell of people (their breath, skin, urine & faeces) were key diagnostic criteria. As well as Parkinson's and other physical disorders having particular odours (Joy Milne's ability has been the inspiration for Parkinson's detection dogs and instrumental tests - it's logical, as many of these conditions affect your hormone balance, metabolism and gut processes, so will change the balance of chemicals your body emits. There is some suggestion that different psychiatric disorders have their own odours too.

It's well known that people can pick each other out by odours - a woman's reproductive status affects how pleasant her used t-shirt will smell, children can pick out their own clothes from a pile by smell alone, a recent study showed that people injected with a mild toxin noticeably changed in body odour.

I wonder if mothers' sensitivity is a combination of the time we spend with the children, women also seem on average to notice odours more, and we're more attuned to the children's moods & behaviours (the combination will reinforce any 'ill smell).

100%!! its great for knowing when the 9 year old is faking illness 🙈🤣 you know they're properly poorly when they have 'that smell'. Youngest is just 5 months and has got the poorly smell after most injections

My mum voiced an opinion I perhaps didn't need the hospital when my foot was facing the wrong way
I suspect she didn't have the smell thing

Definitely I can always smell when my eldest is going to be Ill he has a sickly sweet smell to his breath. He had lots of chest infections when he was little. Not so much with the youngest though to be fair he's only just 3 and hasn't been poorly for about 18 months. Lockdown does at least have some positives

Yes, their breath always smells different, sort of warmer with a chemical smell.

They can never get away with faking illness. One sniff of the breath and a look in their eyes and I can tell!

Yes and I can feel a fever by touching them. DH can smell it too - he's actually better at spotting it than me.

I could smell my son's ear infection - as someone else said, it was weirdly yeasty.

YES!!!!!

Can’t explain how but yes!! People say I’m weird but I’ve found my people!! I KNEW it was a thing!

Yes I can too

I’ve also experienced it with my husband but he was very ill, not just a little bit ill.

A bit with my kids.

More so with a LT boyfriend I had years ago. He had an 'ill' smell about him, always.

He'd had childhood cancer and died of another form of cancer about 10 years after we broke up.

Yes and DH too

Wasn’t it old fashioned medicine where they would smell illness on your breath? I don’t know about my children but when my dad was ill I could smell a sweet sticky smell around him.

Yes. I can't figure what it is but I can smell it. I can tell which one didn't flush the toilet after themselves by the smell too. And smell when it's going to rain or snow or thunder. Weird.

Maybe it's because you're so familiar with their usual smell. I could tell when DS was unwell too by his smell. It did take me by surprise though that I could also smell illness on DH.

I used to smell a vinegary smell on my DDs heads. But only until they were about 5yrs old.
I even tried googling to see if it was known phenomenon, but found nothing!

Yes , my daughter's head used to smell funny when she was poorly

I could do this when mine were little. Dh says I should be trained up like the Labrador Who detect cancer by smell

I think it's pretty standard

Yes, absolutely.

Yes with my youngest I can.

Yep!

@Jasminesmellingcandles

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

Funnily enough, my elderly parents both had a pear drop smell when unwell.

My kid gets this type of smell too! To me it's almost like an antiseptic smell. I thought I was crazy till I found this place everytime they get sick I can smell it but no one else can.