Smell and Taste in Children with Covid-19

Objectives: To assess the frequency of loss of smell and taste in children during Covid-19 infection and their prevalence along with other symptoms, as well as the recovery of chemosensory function once healed.

Methods: To evaluate symptoms during infection, we adapted the Scandinavian adaptation of the Multi-Clinic Smell and Taste Questionnaire and the modified Monel-Jefferson questionnaire. For smell analysis we used Odor Identification (OI) and two variants of the Odor Discrimination (OD) test, and we compared the results with those of a control group.

Results: We enrolled nine patients in our experimental group and nine in our control group. Fever was the most frequent symptom (55% of cases), followed by anosmia and ageusia (44% of cases), muscle pain and asthenia (22% of cases) and diarrhea, abdominal pain, cough, and headache (11% of cases). In 11% of cases, olfactory symptoms were the only manifestation of the disease. There was no statistically significant difference in OI test and OD tests between the two groups (Children healed from Covid-19 and Control Group).

Conclusion: Loss of smell and taste are the second most common symptoms of pediatric Covid-19, and they should always be tested because they can be the only manifestations of infection. Olfactory function in Covid-19 children decreases with increasing age and improves with the passage of time after illness.