Weird smell experience...AS related?

Post Reply New Topic

Does this sound familiar to anyone? My son thinks that cheeseburgers initially smell like vomit. He has to wait a moment to eat them until they start to smell like cheeseburgers.

I ask because I find it curious, but also because my daughter has a lot of sensory issues related to eating and I'm always trying to figure them out so I can see if there is a way I can help her. She has never complained of this before, but she does complain that normal smelling foods smell disgusting to her.

that is interesting. that is probably the result of a strong memory of a particular odor - in your son's case; vomit- and associating it with things in future that have a hint of a similar smell. don't think it's necessarily an aspie thing.

This has happened to me a couple times in the past. Most notably when I spent a few days in a hospital anatomy lab for a university anatomical drawing course i was taking. Since then, certain things that have a slight resemblance in smell trigger the anatomy lab memory. Deli meats and especially sausage smell like cadavers. It is similarity in preservative ingredient I think. Morgues no longer commonly use formaldehyde so it's not an unpleasant smell, perse, just more a distinctive one.

To InThisTogether: Hmm, I happen to know some NTs who avoid eating fast food whenever possible. They say that burgers and fries usually smell rancid to them. (It's an open secret that fast food restaurants tend to deep fry fries in the same pool of oil again and again.)

that aint normal food
any negative reaction
is a sign the body doesnt want it
listen to their bodies
stop poisoning your kids
with low quality foods
their ASD's will worsen
you will have more work to do
more money to spend
more doctors to visit

eat well
live well

I may have had 3 burgers in the last 3 years, maybe

It's synaesthesia, I think. The smell is tied to a memory that happened long ago.

When I see smoke I smell a smoke machine.
When I see a full sink of dishes I smell cat urine. Ew.
When I put on a clean pair of jeans after getting out of the shower I smell sweaty jeans.
I get many other scent memories.

Also, cauliflower and leek soup smells like BO if I can't see it cooking. It tastes nice though.

I'm epileptic too and get migraines a lot, but I have strong synaesthesia too. A high percentage of people with autism have synaesthesia.

Hmm...I can smell cauliflower and leek soup now.

That happens too. Say a word and I smell it.

This is very simply explained, chain store cheese burgers do smell like vomit.

You can test this by not eating cr*p for a couple of weeks, then go buy that juicy cheese burger, you will almost heave at the first sniff, but then you will become quickly desensitised, and be able to eat it (God knows why you would want to).

My dietary restrictions came on in the past couple of years, and because I can't eat junk I can smell the chemicals in food.

This can happen to anyone.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies.

I don't know if any of them solved the riddle for me, but I have new things to think about!

It's weird how some of this stuff works. I think I can taste the hormones in chicken that is not hormone free. It is disgusting. My dad can taste the difference between a boar and a sow. He cannot even stand to be near cooking boar. My daughter probably finds the smell of roughly 50% of foods to be putrid, yet she loves Parmesan cheese, which I think stinks, even though I like to eat it.