Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Olefactory/Gustatory

I know that most don't think "gifted" when it comes to sense of smell or taste.

How many of you have kids (or maybe even you) that have a gift for these senses?

My son has some crazy strong smelling senses. The trash being opened up can cause him to gag from across the room! I would imagine that affects his taste buds as well? I know he has complained that his french fries didn't taste right once when I cooked my sweet potato fries at the same time with a sprig of rosemary over them. No one else in the house could tell a difference in their fries! I assumed this sensitivity was tied to his PDD-NOS.

I'm not sure I'd call it a "gift" so much as a sensory sensitivity, which can be a gift and a curse at the same time.

My DD8 has detected small changes in home recipes... for example, she loves DW's rice pilaf, but has refused it when it was made without onions.

She has also famously refused to eat restaurant food that, based on all our previous experiences, she should love. Whoever ate of that dish later exhibited the symptoms of mild food poisoning. This has happened too many times to be chalked up to coincidence.

DD has a gift for identifying food by smell. Every time we walk into a restaurant she will announce what they are serving ("they have salmon!") or if they are using too much garlic, ginger, cilantro etc. When she was a baby she once woke up from a nap at a restaurant and before her eyes were even open said, "I smell french fries." She is a super picky eater so I wonder if this has something to do with that.

She also has a way about describing smells. She is very metaphorical.

Absolutely, especially my DS11. Super-sensitive to smells, and a super-taster. And I agree, I don't really think of this as a gift, as it has a lot of limiting consequences, though DS become much more able to cope as he has gotten older. When younger, he was unable to sit at the table if we were eating certain foods (particularly fish or eggs, but many meat smells and some intense spices) and even had a strong gag response to several of these. He can smell things long before any of the rest of the family as well. He also comments frequently on scents, often ones which are pleasant to him (often things which have either very subtle or non-description smells to the rest of us- his favorite blanket, that "mommy" smell which is not perfume or anything intentional on my part, etc.). He is also able to detect (and refuse) very minor changes in recipes.

My husband certainly has an extremely strong sense of smell, and likely one of my children. I also agree it's more limiting than a gift.

I'd definitely say your DD is gifted with an ability to sense taste! Of course onion is a strong taste in food usually and maybe not what most would consider an extraordinary "pick-up", but the food poisoning anecdote is beyond the norm, Dude.

I would call that level of sensitivity a gift.

I have a very keen sense of smell and while it does enhance my enjoyment of food/drink it can also be very distracting/unpleasant at times - being in an enclosed space (elevator/train/subway car) with a person that hasn't learned good hygiene, for example.

DD also has the same 'nose' so we can really appreciate some foods and I am looking forward to introducing her to even more as she matures. :-)

I'm surprised how many don't think of these abilities as a gift!

Imo...

It's truly a gift to be able to sense a "pinch of this, or a pinch of that" in a recipe.

It's truly a gift to be able to discern a "whiff of this, or a whiff of that" in a perfume.

Think of those wine connoisseurs! Or those coffee cuppers!

One of my favorite "chillin" movies stars Mimi Rogers as a perfume counter salesperson. She is obviously a gifted olefactress. Olefactor? What's PC?

The Christmas List Movie on YT

Well, if it helps avoid death or severe injury due to food poisoning, that's a gift in my book.

Annoying, yeah.

But quite useful.