“My nose is too full”

“Get the things out of my nose”

“I can’t smell”

“I want my smell back”

This is the first cold she’s really been aware of having, and it’s fascinating to see her noticing the effects it is having on her and her senses. I didn’t think she’d miss her sense of smell, but it’s really upsetting her that it’s deadened by her cold.

Through my professional training, I’ve recently become aware of how little I engage my own senses with my environment, and am making a conscious effort to use all my senses more often, but this seems to be innate for my daughter, and she’s really struggling with losing one of them.

We always tend to have wax melts on the go at home, and it’s a little ritual for us that she’ll give them all a sniff and give her verdict on each, before she chooses the one we’ll use next. (I know there’s evidence to suggest that we shouldn’t be using artificial scents in our homes, and I balance this with plenty of ventilation and fresh air.)

I think our sense of smell is probably our least consciously used of all the senses, and I’m really not sure how much I would miss mine, were it to disappear overnight (next time I have a cold, I’ll let you know!) but this makes me all the more determined to stimulate and actively engage it.

I think it’s wonderful that she is feeling this temporary loss so keenly, and hope that I can model behaviour which will help to preserve this awareness and engagement of all her senses as she grows.

From a biology point of view, it’s also really interesting to see how she understands the nose as a sensory organ, and that she’s aware of there being a blockage in there that is responsible for her inability to smell. This isn’t something I remember teaching her, and it’s amazing what children are able to extrapolate if they’re encouraged to make their own discoveries, and draw their own conclusions. It’s a constant reminder to me to have faith in my daughter’s ability to learn based on her own experience and evidence, and makes me more confident in my decision not to formally educate her.