This is part 4 of a series on Sensory Processing Difficulties. Part 1 was on the sense of touch, part 2 covered the lesser known senses (proprioception and vestibular senses), and part 3 was about sight.
I put these two senses together for a reason when I planned out these blog posts. A lot (though not all) of what we think of as taste is actually smell. Some sources contend that you can actually only taste the most basic flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. Everything else, they say, is smell. From personal experience with having very stuffed up noses (thus, presumably, eliminating my sense of smell), I'm not sure I buy that entirely. But it's definitely true that having a very stuffed nose mutes my sense of taste.
I went over this a bit in the very first post (which was about touch) but parts of eating belong to that sense instead of to taste. Temperature, for example, is in the realm of touch, and texture is as well. Those two things are generally considered a major part of the eating experience, but have to be excluded here for scientific accuracy.
It's worth noting here, as I have in past posts about sensory processing, that all of these reactions are involuntary. You can't make yourself suddenly like hearing someone drag their nails down a chalkboard. You can learn to tolerate it, but it's going to be an unpleasant sound basically forever. If the whole world sounds like nails on a chalkboard, though, you're mostly just going to want to avoid everything as much as possible.
Maybe another comparison that might make it more understandable is cilantro. So, most people taste cilantro as a fresh, tangy, herb-thing. And like it in food. However, some people, as apparently determined by genetics, taste it like it's soap. Very strong soap, directly to the mouth. Needless to say, most of the people like that tend to avoid eating cilantro. Why ruin your food with soap seasoning, right?
Oddly enough, I kind of taste cilantro both ways. It does kind of taste like soap, a bit, but not enough to ruin the rest of the flavor for me. I have a friend, though, that can't stand cilantro in things, which I can entirely respect.
A really common thing I tend to read about in "my family's experience with an autistic child" accounts and medical recommendation books is the "all white foods" diet. So things like white pasta, milk, bread, white rice, and potatoes. The child will prefer these foods, even to the point of outright not eating anything that's not on that list. Growing up, my dad called me "the bread girl" due to my tendency to enjoy and eat large quantities of bread. I was never to the point of refusing to eat anything but the bread, but my mother can probably recount her frustration with trying to feed me a varied, healthy diet.
In fact, it was such a problem that the list below was a thing. I think I recall having to have dozens of huge arguments with my mother before this list came into existence. This is actually probably one of the later lists, and sadly one of the better examples of my handwriting in existence. Good thing keyboards and computers became the main mode of communication! (cough)
Actually, having moved back into town and having had more meals with adult me, my parents seem pleasantly surprised at how wide and varied my diet is now. Like, to the point where my dad actually couldn't believe I eat fish now. Which... I guess is fair, since parents tend to remember their kids as... kids. But my diet has expanded as I grew up, particularly after I was on my own for a while. In my junior year at college, I pretty much ate only macaroni and cheese for dinner each night. I did take my vitamin pills, at least. (Also, my lunch was much more balanced, which I'm sure helped.)
Beauty products aren't the only pitfall. In an untidy kitchen, the smell of rotting food from the sink, refrigerator, or the garbage can be overwhelmingly revolting. I have, in the past, had to stay very far away from a kitchen sink because something had been left to "soak," and turned rancid. People with less overzealous senses of smell simply don't understand, and may insist you're being excessive about your concern or reaction, which is about the last thing you want to hear when you're trying not to vomit.
Another culprit is cleaning products. Bleach has a very strong smell, as do some other chemical cleaners. A freshly cleaned bathroom, like a dirty one, can also be a minefield for people with scent sensitivity. I once cleaned my bathtub with bleach, and not only did I have to run the bathroom fan, I also had to open two windows for a cross breeze, and vacate the premises until the stench died down some. I was literally getting dizzy, nearly to the point of passing out, from the smell.
My nose is kind of odd in general. It seems sensitive, but it's either very selective, or I'm rather bad at identifying what it's telling me. In the last house my parents owned, at dinner time, the food that was cooking would smell like one thing from my room on the second floor. As I'd walk down the stairs, the food would smell like a different dish. And when I finally got to the kitchen, I would find out that it was in fact a third, different food.
I also have a useless superpower for detecting spoiled cow's milk. I can taste and smell when it starts to turn, but is still safe to drink, and the smell/taste gets progressively worse until I find it intolerable and the milk is definitely not safe to drink. This would be less useless if I wasn't only drinking almond milk these days... But I guess it's better to have it than to not have it.
Perfume is thankfully mostly out of fashion where I live, but every once in a while, there's that one person who just slathers it on and doesn't seem to realize that they reek. I run into those at church sometimes, but they mostly, thankfully, don't sit at the back of the church. There was this once that someone did, and they sat right by the sound booth, too. So while I was trying to run the sound board, I kept getting nosefuls of this cloying, revolting fragrance at about 10x stronger than it had any right to be. This resulted in my choking and coughing fairly often, which I had to try to do quietly, because it was still a church service and nobody except my spouse knew that I couldn't breathe.
I'm not really sure if this counts as smell, but my mother and I are both very sensitive to mold. Within the last year or so, I went to a memorial service in a stone chapel. The service was probably very nice, but I spent pretty much the entire time feeling dizzy and foggy and confused. My mother said afterwards that the place must've had a mold problem, because she reacts to it. She shook off the effects within 5 minutes, but it took me more like 20 minutes or so, outside, to feel less awful. I've had similar effects when food molds in the fridge or the cupboards. Those tend to last longer, because the mold spores get into everything, which then has to be washed. Bedding, clothes, towels, all of it.
I put these two senses together for a reason when I planned out these blog posts. A lot (though not all) of what we think of as taste is actually smell. Some sources contend that you can actually only taste the most basic flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. Everything else, they say, is smell. From personal experience with having very stuffed up noses (thus, presumably, eliminating my sense of smell), I'm not sure I buy that entirely. But it's definitely true that having a very stuffed nose mutes my sense of taste.
I went over this a bit in the very first post (which was about touch) but parts of eating belong to that sense instead of to taste. Temperature, for example, is in the realm of touch, and texture is as well. Those two things are generally considered a major part of the eating experience, but have to be excluded here for scientific accuracy.
Limited Diets, Nails on a Chalkboard, and Cilantro
A common tendency in autistic children is food pickiness. This is often based in texture, but also in taste and in smell. The texture (which is touch) can be bothersome because some people hate or love crunching sounds, or mushy feelings on their tongue, or breading on food. When I say "hate" by the way, I mean that in a much more literal sense than it's commonly used. Think hearing "nails on a chalkboard" every time you crunched fresh green beans, or dry cereal, or popcorn. You'd probably avoid crunchy foods after a while, too, and be upset if you were forced to eat them.It's worth noting here, as I have in past posts about sensory processing, that all of these reactions are involuntary. You can't make yourself suddenly like hearing someone drag their nails down a chalkboard. You can learn to tolerate it, but it's going to be an unpleasant sound basically forever. If the whole world sounds like nails on a chalkboard, though, you're mostly just going to want to avoid everything as much as possible.
Maybe another comparison that might make it more understandable is cilantro. So, most people taste cilantro as a fresh, tangy, herb-thing. And like it in food. However, some people, as apparently determined by genetics, taste it like it's soap. Very strong soap, directly to the mouth. Needless to say, most of the people like that tend to avoid eating cilantro. Why ruin your food with soap seasoning, right?
Oddly enough, I kind of taste cilantro both ways. It does kind of taste like soap, a bit, but not enough to ruin the rest of the flavor for me. I have a friend, though, that can't stand cilantro in things, which I can entirely respect.
A really common thing I tend to read about in "my family's experience with an autistic child" accounts and medical recommendation books is the "all white foods" diet. So things like white pasta, milk, bread, white rice, and potatoes. The child will prefer these foods, even to the point of outright not eating anything that's not on that list. Growing up, my dad called me "the bread girl" due to my tendency to enjoy and eat large quantities of bread. I was never to the point of refusing to eat anything but the bread, but my mother can probably recount her frustration with trying to feed me a varied, healthy diet.
In fact, it was such a problem that the list below was a thing. I think I recall having to have dozens of huge arguments with my mother before this list came into existence. This is actually probably one of the later lists, and sadly one of the better examples of my handwriting in existence. Good thing keyboards and computers became the main mode of communication! (cough)
 |
| As you can see by the specificity of both fish and peppers, I was a pedantic child. Fortunately for my mother, I didn't know that I could have said "variants of the wild mustard plant" and gotten cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli all in one item. |
Through the Nose to Punch the Brain
Smell, on the other hand, can be a really unfortunate minefield. Perfume, cologne, and scented products are widespread, and it's all too easy to get overwhelmed with the reek of these "beauty products." People can even get migraines, or sick to their stomachs. I know someone who actually gets a brutal headache if she smells things that are floral scented. She isn't autistic, but she definitely counts as sensitive to smells!Beauty products aren't the only pitfall. In an untidy kitchen, the smell of rotting food from the sink, refrigerator, or the garbage can be overwhelmingly revolting. I have, in the past, had to stay very far away from a kitchen sink because something had been left to "soak," and turned rancid. People with less overzealous senses of smell simply don't understand, and may insist you're being excessive about your concern or reaction, which is about the last thing you want to hear when you're trying not to vomit.
Another culprit is cleaning products. Bleach has a very strong smell, as do some other chemical cleaners. A freshly cleaned bathroom, like a dirty one, can also be a minefield for people with scent sensitivity. I once cleaned my bathtub with bleach, and not only did I have to run the bathroom fan, I also had to open two windows for a cross breeze, and vacate the premises until the stench died down some. I was literally getting dizzy, nearly to the point of passing out, from the smell.
My nose is kind of odd in general. It seems sensitive, but it's either very selective, or I'm rather bad at identifying what it's telling me. In the last house my parents owned, at dinner time, the food that was cooking would smell like one thing from my room on the second floor. As I'd walk down the stairs, the food would smell like a different dish. And when I finally got to the kitchen, I would find out that it was in fact a third, different food.
I also have a useless superpower for detecting spoiled cow's milk. I can taste and smell when it starts to turn, but is still safe to drink, and the smell/taste gets progressively worse until I find it intolerable and the milk is definitely not safe to drink. This would be less useless if I wasn't only drinking almond milk these days... But I guess it's better to have it than to not have it.
Perfume is thankfully mostly out of fashion where I live, but every once in a while, there's that one person who just slathers it on and doesn't seem to realize that they reek. I run into those at church sometimes, but they mostly, thankfully, don't sit at the back of the church. There was this once that someone did, and they sat right by the sound booth, too. So while I was trying to run the sound board, I kept getting nosefuls of this cloying, revolting fragrance at about 10x stronger than it had any right to be. This resulted in my choking and coughing fairly often, which I had to try to do quietly, because it was still a church service and nobody except my spouse knew that I couldn't breathe.
I'm not really sure if this counts as smell, but my mother and I are both very sensitive to mold. Within the last year or so, I went to a memorial service in a stone chapel. The service was probably very nice, but I spent pretty much the entire time feeling dizzy and foggy and confused. My mother said afterwards that the place must've had a mold problem, because she reacts to it. She shook off the effects within 5 minutes, but it took me more like 20 minutes or so, outside, to feel less awful. I've had similar effects when food molds in the fridge or the cupboards. Those tend to last longer, because the mold spores get into everything, which then has to be washed. Bedding, clothes, towels, all of it.
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