Treatment of children who have lost their sense of smell

Orange. eucalyptus. lavender. peppermint.

Doctors at Corona Children’s Hospital and Seattle Children’s Hospital in the United States use such scents to treat children who have lost their sense of smell with Covid-19.

Parents go to the clinic and return home with a set of essential oils for their child to sniff twice a day for three months.

Clinicians check the progress every month.

The Colorado Children’s Hospital Odor Clinic was approved to open on March 10 (2021).

So far, five children have been screened and one has been enrolled.

Seattle Children’s plans to launch the program this spring (2021).

This treatment, known as “olfactory training,” has been clinically proven to be effective in adults.

However, according to clinicians, there is virtually no data on whether this method works for children.

Children are much less likely to develop Covid-19 or suffer from the consequences than adults, but the number of pediatric patients is steadily increasing.

More cases mean that more children are exhibiting a protracted symptom known as “long covid.”

Among these complaints is the loss of odor.

The link between coronavirus infection and adult olfactory dysfunction is well documented in both short-term ill patients and so-called long-haul carriers.

However, scientists are still uncertain about how many people will develop this complication and how the virus causes it.

Various research teams have found clues that can explain this phenomenon, such as inflammation and destruction of the structures that support the cells involved in olfactory function.

However, Dr. John McCrae, a pediatric otolaryngology (ENT) surgeon in Frisco, Texas, said few studies focused on odor disturbances in children, not to mention Covid-19.

That’s because children rarely develop these problems, and the new coronavirus was just that, and new.

“Everything is very new,” said the American Academy of Pediatrics Board of Education on the chair of ENT.

“You really can’t put a hat on something.”

One intervention for adults who lose their sense of smell as a result of neuropathy such as Alzheimer’s disease, tumors that block nasal airflow, or any number of viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was olfactory training.

This generally works as follows: The doctor tests the patient’s sense of smell to establish a baseline.

Adults are then given a set of essential oils with specific scents and instructions on how to train their nose at home.

Patients usually sniff each oil twice daily for weeks or months.

At the end of the training, the doctor will retest them to determine if they have improved.

Dr. Yolanda Horror Managan, a pediatric neurologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Fineberg School of Medicine, said he did not understand why this method did not work for children.

In both age groups, the olfactory nerve can regenerate every 6-8 weeks.

As your nerves heal, training helps strengthen your sense of smell.

“It’s like helping your muscles get stronger again,” she said.

At the end of last spring (2020), when doctors began discovering adult olfactory and taste problems at Covid-19, Dr. Kenny Chan, a pediatric otolaryngologist who oversees a new Colorado clinic, said this to children. I realized that it could also be a problem.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kathleen Sea, Head and Neck Surgery Chief of Seattle Children’s Hospital Otorhinolaryngology, noticed the problem when he received an email from someone at a local emergency medical center.

After reading the message, Dr. Shi called Dr. Chan and talked about it.

The conversation became a snowball at the forefront of her facility’s scent training clinic.

Both clinicians need to tackle the challenges that “olfactory training” can pose to children.

First, some young patients may not know how to identify a particular scent (for example, spices such as cloves) used in adult tests. This is because they are too young and there is no standard framework.

As a workaround, Dr. Chan used several scents instead of the more recognizable scents.

It is also difficult to find a child who is experiencing an olfactory disorder.

Many Covid-19s are asymptomatic (symptomatic) and others may not be able to verbally describe what they are experiencing or recognize what they are missing.

Nevertheless, Dr. McRae said the potential benefits of simple treatment outweigh the costs and challenges of setting it up for children.

Adult olfactory training kits sell for less than US $ 50 (RM207).

“There is no data that this does anything,” said Dr. Chan.

“But if no one cares about this question, it won’t be solved.” – Carmen Heredia Rodriguez / Kaiser Health News / Tribunnews Service

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service in the United States. This is an editorial independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.