My 8 year old sniffs EVERYTHING! Food, books, clothes,doors anything and everything, is this an actual disease

Answer 1

Probably not. Kids (particularly kids in that age range) go through all kinds of phases of doing weird little things.

These days there is so much "awareness" of disorders that parents are often looking for signs that there's something wrong with their children. Fewer people have disorders than our culture would you us believe, and most of the time when someone doesn't something a little odd it is a temporary phase or else they actually have a good reason for doing it. I'm not saying there aren't real disorders or that people should just assume all is fine all the time, but this "disorder awareness" has seeped into parents' worries a little more than it should.

I knew someone who seemed compulsive about visually measuring everything by viewing everything through an imaginary lense she created with her thumb and forefinger. She would sit and do that seemingly non-stop, and you could see her imaginary lense get bigger and smaller as she measured whatever she could see. Just an example. Another example is some mother on this site was concerned about her (I think) eight-year-old who seemed to need to "color" road signs when she wasn't talking with her mother in the car. I think people in that age range are kind of bored much of the time and discover some strange thing that keeps them busy.

Of course, there's the chance your child may be showing signs of developing some problem; but based on what you said he's doing right now and on his age, I think there's no reason yet to think its going to blow up into a problem.

I'm going to post a question about eight-year-olds and bizarre little habits just out of my own curiosity.

Answer 2

I don't have an answer for you but all I can say is the 8 year old little boys can be hard to put on track. My son is also 8, he doesn't do what yours does, but I can't get him to do anything that he doesn't really want to do (from homework to brushing his teeth), and he doesn't put much effort into work at school either. All I can tell you is that I have tried: reasoning with him, applying rewards or/and punishments, spanking, shouting, nagging, sitting down with him to do his tasks, ignoring him while doing his tasks, well everything and anything I can think of, but nothing works, he is not motivated to do what he doesn't want to do. If I were you I would enlist professional help, someone who has studied similar situations, and can give you some pointers on how to effectively handle an 8 year old boy. That's what I'm going to do!

Answer 3

I used to sniff everything for the first 29 years of my life. Then suddenly my nose stopped working. I'm not being a wise acre either- it really did. Now I can't smell anything at all. I must have used it all up. Tell your child my story. I have no idea why this happened. Allergies maybe?

Answer 4

I did it , nothing wrong with it. Actually I can to this day "smell" something on the air and it will trigger a memory. Often memories can be triggered by a smell or scent.

I can smell the odor of creosote (used to coat telephone polls) and instantly remember a particular day from my childhood, because our back yard had a telephone pole in it and we used to use it to bold out "forts" up with.... OK so it sounds silly bit it's true.

Don't you have a smell that reminds you of something? Like pine = Christmas, a new book= library, mimeograph papers = homework, cookies baking= happy times.... stuff like that...


Don't worry your child is very normal. If you are really worried about the behavior talk to you child doctor about your concerns.

Answer 5

No nothing is wrong with him. I know adults that do the same thing, not everything but almost everything. It is just another sense that helps him learn about the things he is handling. Just like touching something links memory to texture (silk, sandpaper, cotton). Smell is the same (flowers, old books, food gone bad). Like if you picked up a shirt that stank it wouldn't be worn.
It is just one of the five senses and is natural.

Answer 6

Noooooooooooo!!!!! I Used To Do It It Is Just A Fase Her Will Grow Out Of It I Had The Same Problem I Dont No Why Though IT Must Appear On Some Kids!

Answer 7

No, and it's definitely not OCD. It's just a passing phase. Don't worry about it. Or, if you are, bring him/her to the doctor.

The symptoms of OCD are:

Symptoms may include some, all or perhaps none of the following:

* Repeated hand-washing.
* Specific counting systems — e.g. counting in groups of four, arranging objects in groups of three, grouping objects in odd/even numbered groups, etc.
o One serious symptom which stems from this is "counting" your steps, e.g. you must take twelve steps to the car in the morning.
* Perfectly aligning objects at complete, absolute right angles, etc. This symptom is shared with OCPD and can be confused with this condition unless it is realised that in OCPD it is not stress-related.
* Having to "cancel out" bad thoughts with good thoughts. Examples of bad thoughts are:
o Imagining harming a child, and having to imagine a child playing happily to cancel it out.
o Unwanted sexual thoughts. Two classic examples are fear of being homosexual or fear of being a pedophile. In both cases, sufferers will obsess over whether or not they are genuinely aroused by the thoughts.
* A fear of contamination; some sufferers may fear the presence of human body secretions such as saliva, sweat, tears or mucus, or excretions such as urine or feces. Some OCD sufferers even fear that the soap they're using is contaminated. [1]
* A need for both sides of the body to feel even. A person with OCD might walk down a sidewalk and step on a crack with the ball of their left foot, then feel the need to step on another crack with the ball of their right foot. Also, if one hand gets wet, the sufferer may feel very uncomfortable if the other is not.


I got that from wikipedia, by the way. But, it's pretty accurate.

Answer 8

My daughter went thru that when she was about 8 or 9. She smelled her food her hands, her books, etc. She did it for a bout 6 months or so. For awhile I would say something to her about it and it got worse. Then one day I decided to ignore it and had everyone else do the same. For some reason it worked. When we stopped giving her attendtion for it she stopped.

Answer 9

I sniff stuff too - just because I enjoy my senses. Just be glad that he/she isn't still sticking everything in the mouth! I wouldn't worry about it unless it causes health problems!

(I love the smell of books)

Answer 10

i smell everything also, i work at a retail farm store and i smell almost everything that comes to the counter everything from pliers to air fresheners and milk replacer. i try to be discreet about it but every once in a while someone will say "did you just smell that" i don't know why i do it. i don't really think its a problem