Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Sense of senses?

My dd2.5 seems to be having a heyday with smelling things lately, and with sounds. We saw ds8 in the Nutcracker last night and when she heard an instrument she was interested in she was asking 'What's that sound?', 'What's that sound?'
She is doing that while riding in the car, playing at the house, any sound she hasn't heard before or maybe can't figure out the source of must be determined/defined. If I am tapping my fingers or clicking my tongue, she wants to 'see' what is up.

Also with odors she is lately fascinated, or repulsed, I am not sure which. She is smelling me, her brother, the food of course. She asked the other day what this building we were driving by would smell like. (new carpet and antiseptic?)
She asked what her brother smells like (hamburgers and pencil dust, imo!

Sometimes she will get downright loud about it. In a public restroom the other day, lots of strong smells unfortunately, I had to speak with her in the stall about keeping some of this to herself, to no avail of course. I don't want to shut her down on this curiosity but I don't want to offend anyone. At least she is just 2 so that is usually an ok excuse.

Anyone's kids go through a phase like this? I really don't remember ds doing this... both of these things seem to have come on strong in just the last week or so.
She has had ear infections in the past, but ear tubes for over a year, so I wouldn't think she'd be hearing or smelling really differently in just the last week.
Scratching my head.

LOL!

No advice - DD isnt quite yet two. But smell can be heightened with hormones (e.g., pregnancy). Maybe it's a girl development phase...? I hope she keeps her keen sense of smell because it's so underused in our society. Our pheremone sensing organ is in our nose, and smell is the most strongly linked sense to memory. Go nose, go!

My nephew used to have a tee shirt that said, "I'm Two, What's Your Excuse?" LOL!

Our daughter is also 2 (almost 26 months) and is big time into smells as well. We drive past big trucks and she always tells me they smell like exhaust. Today in the mall she asked me what the smell was...it was the soap store. When something is cooking she has to know what it is.

Dd also has a very heightened sense of sound...I wonder if the 2 go together at all?

I also have a strong sense of smell and so does my mom. Maybe it is genetic? Sometimes smells will wake me up. I can smell the "Rubbermaid" aisle at Walmart from a couple aisles away...weird i know. I also can't stand the smell of Zip-Lock bags. Yes, they do have a smell!

It's an interesting topic though!

Now you guys mention it, I have a pretty strong sense of smell, too, though maybe not quite three-aisles over strong!

lol my DS4 does it too lol she mentions the smell of many new places we go lol including public restrooms

she started at a new gymnastics school last year and said she liked it better... Then one day when headed for the gym she asked if she could switch back to the old gym and i asked why and she said the new one smells weird i asked what does it smell like? (thinking she was just being silly after all it had been a week since her last class and she was only 3yrs old) she told me it smells like i bunch of kids have been playing in there for a long time lol so we get there and i take a smell of the place and realize oh wow it really does smell like that in there lol i still made her go back for weeks lol after all we had already paid for classes and other then the smell it was a good gym

When my daughter complains about smells that I can barely detect, I think back to how sensitive my sense of smell was while pregnant. Scents were overpowering, even for things like shampoo, soap, and laundry detergent. It helps me be a bit more sensitive to her plight.