"Meat smells rotten and doesn't even make it to the plate"
Did you know that children can have an altered sense of smell after a Covid infection?
Children with Cacosmia often feel as though they can smell something offensive, when in fact no such substance is present.
When the sense of smell, or olfactory system, is not working correctly, a person can perceive even pleasant odours to be foul-smelling.
With Cacosmia, the smell is often described as similar to faeces, or a burning, rotten, or chemical odour.
The result of this disabling symptom is that children can't / don't eat.
Dramatic weight loss can occur and in extreme cases, tube feeding may become necessary.
One Mum shares their story.
"There are many 'osmias' phantosmias is smelling things that aren't there smelling smoke is very common, parosmia is distorted taste/smell (most talked about with covid), cacosmia - smelling rancid/rotten etc smells, anosmia - loss of taste/smell (again common with covid).
Our ENT consultant says our daughter has had them all but they can all kind of overlap hence why those two are more frequently discussed.
The parosmia is what is preventing her from eating well as 99 percent of things taste/smell not as they should.
A few examples;
Cola tastes minty as does pear.
Banana tastes of metal.
Milk tastes and smells of wet dog.
Meat smells rotten and doesn't even make it to the plate
I (Mum) smell of chemicals if I've washed my hair".
Children in The Long Covid Kids group have had Cacosmia for 6 months plus, and some are now alarmingly underweight.
"If things don't change, tube feeding is the next step"
For more info visit AbScent.org
LongCovidKids.org is a parent and patient-led campaign & support group for parents of children with Long Covid. Our story started with a short film on long-lasting symptoms of Covid in children & we are working on