Let's Celebrate Anosmia Awareness Day!
Join Me During My Facebook Live Event Next Thursday @ 11:00am MST!
Let’s chat about what it’s like to live without our sense of smell (or tune in to learn more). What is YOUR anosmia story?
https://www.facebook.com/girlwhocantsmell/
Also, make sure you show your support by sharing my FREE Anosmia Awareness Gifs and Pics (created just for you!) Click on the pic below.
Looking forward to talking to you soon!
With Love,
The Girl Who Cant Smell
More Information About Anosmia:
Hi, I’m the mother of a 10 yr old boy named Vincent. He was born with congenital anosmia. I had a feeling he wan wasn’t smelling ever since he was around 2, but Drs all said I was overreacting & had nothing too worry about. I kept bringing up my concerns till they finally did an MRI on him & learned his brain was missing his olfactory bulbs. I’ve done my best to make him feel normal & reassure him that although he’ll always need good smoke & chemical alarms & never eat expired food. He’s kinda lucky he can’t smell all the yucky stuff. It breaks my heart that he’ll never know the smell of a flower or memories if grandmas cooking, but I’m very grateful that it isn’t something he’s had & lost. That would be a much harder issue to have to cope with. As of now Vincent seems content. I’ve asked him if there was a magic pill he can take that’ll allow him to smell, would he wanna try it? He said “no mommy, I’m glad I can’t smell”. I have a feeling that might change as he gets older, but for now we’re grateful. I wanted to all you, if there was 1 thing you wished your parents did or didn’t do for you as an anosmic child, what would it be? Sorry for such a long msg.
Hello Vicky! Thank you for commenting. You’ve brought up an excellent question and it makes me happy to know you have taken such a proactive approach in terms of your child’s anosmia.
When I first told my mother I couldn’t smell, she reacted confused and was a bit shocked. She couldn’t believe what I had just told her so she had many questions. To be honest, it was a pretty awkward experience. Now that I think back, I’ve come to understand that her reaction (along with others) actually confused ME and made me feel insecure like I was not normal, like if I was some type of weird alien.
Now that I’m older and can see this, my efforts are placed in guiding others. I want to make sure future generations do not go through the same experience I did.
Parents must be the first ones in their child’s life to understand them and make them feel that missing a sense is totally normal. Most importantly they will need to remember that their child can’t smell (I know this is hard because technically, this is an invisible condition). But the effort will be well worth it.
Parents should also be alert for any smell signals their child might not be able to detect on their own (you’ve outlined the most important). Also, they should gently remind siblings that their anosmic brother or sis might need them to smell for them and that they should be willing to help (also informing teachers).
As a bonding experience, it would be great if you could describe smells and do so not by using another smell, but by including visuals and by how things feel.
I hope these recommendations help you out in the meantime. Please stay tuned as I will be creating a special post for parents with an anosmic child in the near future.