Runny Nose and Fussy Eating

With Winter, comes colds, influenza, sinusitis, even hay fever and other ailments that cause a runny nose.

A runny nose is full of mucus and is perhaps all scratched and sore inside from blowing and cleaning constantly. These contribute to messing up our sense of smell.

My interest in this is because our sense of smell is intimately linked to how we perceive tastes and flavours, and how we enjoy – or not - foods. See below a diagram of how we smell through our nostrils and also through our retro-nasal channels (little tunnels between our nose and mouth), as we eat.

www.decodingdelicious.com

Keeping food in the mouth, while we chew, releases chemical compounds from the food that travel in reverse-way through our nose as we exhale. And, as it happens, we smell these compounds (aka volatiles). So, in a way, we “smell” foods that are in our mouth. And this makes up for our full flavour perception.

If our sense of smell is impaired, you already get it that we will taste foods in a different way, right? It may taste different, it may taste less or little, and even not taste of anything at all.

So, children becoming fussier with their food choices during and after a cold or other upper respiratory tract infection is quite common and expected.

Children will naturally favour foods that look, smell and taste familiar to them, but, when their senses of smell and taste are impaired, those foods may smell and taste unfamiliar and may be rejected.

On top of it, you add Covid-19 and its common symptom: anosmia – impairment of sense of smell. This can be the first symptom of the infection and last for months after the patient has recovered from Covid-19. Even though it’s not yet certain, researchers are gathering enough information about the reasons anosmia happens to Covid-19 patients and it is believed to be due to damage caused to a specific smell receptor in the nose internal skin.

It’s estimated that about half of Covid-19 patients experience anosmia – I didn’t! Thank Goodness! - But studies have mostly been done with adults. 

A study run in Spain last year showed that the prevalence of anosmia in children with Covid-19 is lower than in adults which could be due to children’s immature smell receptor – that specific one that the virus damages.

Little children are not very good in describing symptoms, so they might experience anosmia as much as adults or more or less, we don’t know for sure.

It’s quite concerning that anosmic Covid-19 recovered children can experience this mess for months. But there is hope because scientists are researching treatments for it. At the moment, there is research on various drugs and supplements, and also on training. Yes, you read it right, you can train yourself to smell and taste things right again. But it takes time and effort. It can go for months.

The basics of smell training is to simply… well, smell things. For example, there are smell training kits for sale which are jars with a paper disc wet with smelling liquids such as lavender and clove essential oils. You can buy those or simply make your own at home, but these kits were developed, again, with adults in mind. 

For children, you could maybe try this game Karen Le Billon suggests in her book The 7 Secrets of Raising Happy Eaters:

The 7 Secrets of Raising Happy Eaters

The best thing to do actually is to follow the guidance and advice of your trusted gp or an otolaryngologist (a medical doctor specialist in ear, nose and throat).

And, while the mess is going on, hang in there with your little one. They may feel as distressed and as confused as you. 😊

References

1. Australian Journal of General Practice - Covid-19 Related Anosmia. (2022) https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/coronavirus/covid-19-related-anosmia

2. Subtle olfactory dysfunction after SARS-CoV-2 virus infection in children. (Study, 2020, Spain) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7706415/#bib30

3. The Anatomy of Flavour. (2013) http://www.decodingdelicious.com/the-anatomy-of-flavor/

4. Original Smell Training Kit - Abscent

5. The Secret of Raising Happy Eaters (Book, 2014, UK). Karen Le Billon