Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Olefactory/Gustatory

I agree it's useful.

Just thinking of those cancer-detecting dogs... and thinking that perhaps humans have different levels of the "gift of smell".

My sense of smell gift definitely comes from my dad. He is more annoyed by scents than grateful, imo. It seems everyone in our family except me is also annoyed with his complaints!

When I was pregnant, as many women here will attest to, my sense of smell was "off the chart" hyper-sensitive. Being a woman with a prior ability beyond most, it was sometimes too much and I would agree during pregnancy I wouldn't have said it was a gift.

One example of what I notice and others don't...If I open and cook a bag of frozen veggies, I can tell if they have a problem. There's a sort of "moldish smell" to them. It's hard to explain because other people tell me that they taste fine and they don't get sick. But that smell warns me off!

Jon, my family's extreme olofactory sensitivity seems to be tuned more strongly to non food things (chemicals, mould, etc). Which yes, does protect from chemicals and mould that harm. But it has a major downside, although I guess truth be told the down side is more that their (our) systems are as sensitive to the causes of the smells as they are to the displeasure of the smell. I am less sensitive to smell but equally (more?) likely to get headaches etc from the cause, so DH will be ranting about smells while I am whining about my headache... In the case of visiting friends we are both sitting there stiffly looking anti-social due to so much of our energy going to trying really hard to cope with their scented candles or the smell of their washing powder and not mentioning it.

It's tricky living with a man who has absolutely zero tolerance for anything fragranced - most personal care products are unacceptable (if I want to be in the same room with him).... No perfume ever, no deodorants, hair sprays, most soap and hair products are unacceptable. I wash my hair before going to the hairdresser to avoid their shampoos, then again when I get home to wash out the products they considered normal for "do not put ANYTHING in my hair". I just tried a new hair product this week out of desperation and had to wash my hair three times to get the smell out, and throw out the essentially unused product.

Maybe it's saving us from cancer but mostly it's inconvenient....

There was also the incident where we arrive at a holiday house and DH declared there was something dead there as soon as he got out of the car. It took 2-4 days for anyone else to smell it at all, by which time he was grid searching under the building with a night vision video camera... And he found a cat, house siding had to be removed to get it out (assisted by my mother who still couldn't really smell it)... He was miserable for 4 days of a 6 day holiday while the rest of us were either barely effected or not effected at all.

ITA with Dude - my dd11 has an extremely sensitive sense of smell.... and there are times that it causes her a *lot* of discomfort when she has to be somewhere that doesn't smell good to her.

I'll also add that it can be completely beyond embarassing to parent a child with an extreme sense of smell in some instances... I can't tell you how many times we've walked into a room (school, stores, people's houses, wherever) where my dd will immediately pipe up with some comment like "Oooh! This house smells like (insert icky embarassing smell here", no one else can smell it... but then there's also some type of obvious proof that she's right.......... so in addition to my other "messages I repeat over and over again" to my sensory seeking dd ("don't touch everything", "don't wiggle when you are talking to people" "stop incessantly playing with your hair").... I also find myself constantly reminding her "Now when we go inside this house, remember to NOT announce what it smells like!"...



polarbear

Ah Polarbear, I did it myself as a child (well teen actually, so it was even worse). Walked into a friend's kitchen and said "OMG what is that TERRIBLE SMELL??" It was her mother's very expensive perfume. Oops. Years of sinus issues have eroded my own sense of smell and it was never as good as my husband's.

I am right with you there!

I have it a strong sense of smell too. I could smell if my dh had a beer a few hours after he went out with the lads! So it can be useful at times. Other times, I wish I could switch it off. Yes, I am also very sensitive to molds, pollens, and other environmental allergens.

My family has the strong senses of smells and tastes. My mother and I cannot wear perfumes and are very sensitive to certain fragrances, shampoos, laundry detergent and softeners, etc. Some of my family are on the autism spectrum so some of it comes with the territory of being on the spectrum, having SPD, and being gifted.

My 2e pg ds 7.5 was born with severe SPD. Oy. We had all kinds of fun and games with him with smells, tastes, visuals, sounds, touch, textures, vestibular, etc. And we were living in NYC. I remember when I was pregnant with him, I couldn't walk past the olives, cheese, and coffee bean area in one particular shop because he would pummel me inside.

I have never really thought about it, but I have a very good smeller and I agree that also makes me a good taster too! I am always the first (within my family, at work, or elsewhere) to detect when someone is cooking something, has lit a candle, or needs some deodorant, etc. I will mention I smell something and everyone looks around, sniffing the air, but they can't smell it. I would even guess my hearing may be above average. I haven't noticed any of these things in my children, but now that someone has mentioned it I might try to pay more attention and see.

Luckily I can withstand most nasty smells (but my gag reflex can kick in at times) and it doesn't cause me headaches. I like the smell of gasoline (always have), lilacs, and fabric softener, and I can't stand cigarette smoke or that wet dog smell. I can smell cigarette smoke from a mile away, on people's clothes, breath, house, or in their vehicle, etc - even if they haven't smoked in the house or vehicle for a long time.

Not too long ago, at our office building, I smelled something heat related, not necessarily smoke or fire, but more an electrical smell (that is the best way I can describe it). I walked through our office which is quite large with about 15 separate offices trying to locate the source and asking if anyone else smelled it - of course no one did. I ended up back at my end of the office building smelling an adjacent wall that leads to another office type building. I called a couple co-workers over to the wall to see if they could smell it and they couldn't. I went outside to see if I could see or smell anything and it just wouldn't go away, but the other office was closed so I couldn't see past the front door. I went back into my office and then I could smell smoke. I again asked if anyone else could smell something and finally they thought maybe they could smell something, but they weren't sure what it was they were smelling. I said I was calling 911 and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Good thing I did, the furnace unit in the building next door had shorted out or something and was smoking. By the time the fire dept. got there the building was filling with smoke, but no major damage occurred.

Never again will I not trust my nose!

I've always had a keen sense of smell, and my mother did, too. We came close to killing a lady in front of us at a concert once, who apparently thought it was a good idea to wear the entire bottle of perfume. I can't stand when somebody puts on too much of anything -- it will give me an instant headache, as well as setting the sinuses dripping, and sometimes my sinuses or throat will just try to close up in self-defense and I have to get out of the area.

I'm better about laundry soap and dryer sheets with scents these days, but I still can't use any soap or lotion that is perfumed. They sometimes use a perfumed soap in the dispensers at work, and I have to go find a different soap to wash it off with so I can stand to be around myself. And the carpet service brings in these scented things that attach to the toilet pipes, and hook them to all three toilets in the ladies' room, and I can't even breathe in that hallway, much less the bathroom, until I go in and remove two of them and send them to the dumpsters outside.

Not sure about my kiddos yet, though. It's hard to tell what's "normal" when you're used to being really sensitive.

Oh yes, my DD is like this. She can come into the house and ID what is for dinner by the smell in the air, even when nothing is visible. Interestingly, I can taste all kinds of subtleties but it is my DH who is always smelling phantom, faint bad smells. (I know that makes no sense.) None of us can tolerate scented laundry detergent or perfume.