Hi barb. Its not a stupid question at all. First of all, has anything else changed......are you on a new med? Have you had a virus recently? I had a virus with fever for several days about 19 years ago, and lost alot of my taste and smell after that. I had a big workup (brain) and nothing showed up. I've heard that if your taste and smell doesn't come back in 6 years, it probably won't ever. I'm not sure about the nasal polyps. How does your tongue look? I've also heard that a zinc deficiency can cause this, so try taking zinc for awhile. Take it with food, though, because it can upset your stomach. Have you seen your doc about it? There is a smell and taste clinic in Chicago, but I never went. My docs said that some viruses just attack that area of our body, and can destroy things. I would start with your internist. I actually went through alot of different stages after I lost those senses.........for awhile I thought I smelled something burning all the time. Very disconcerting. Yes, it started for me when perimenopause started, but I also developed fibromyalgia, so its hard to know exactly what caused it, but I'm thinking it was the virus. Some of my favorite smelling flowers, I can't even smell at all anymore. I feel your pain. But don't give up. You still might get it back.

I feel for both of you! Eight years ago, I ended up in the hospital many times with Addisonian crisis. The last time, they ended up giving me tons of fluids, and within a few days, I'd gained 25 pounds of water weight, which had to be taken off with diuretics after the crisis had passed. The diuretics took away my sense of taste and smell, though I didn't realize at the time that this was the culprit. Mine were only lost for a month or so, until my doctors figured out what the problem was and game me something else, but it was just awful, so depressing. I'm glad both of you have some taste and smell back.

Yes, some years ago I caught the 'mother of all colds', like I had never had before. Lost sense of taste and smell for a very long time. Many years have passed, and it did recover slowly...but I still am unable to smell smoke very quickly. Very odd, but after DH tells me there is smoke, I do smell it. Sort of a delayed thing. It is scary for me as I am terrified of fire(and am always burning bread!). Unfortunately, it never bothered my taste buds enough to quit eating (LOL)

I had a somewhat similar rule with my dog when I was little. If he came looking at a snack I was eating (not a proper meal at the table--he had very good manners), if it wasn't on the not for dogs list, I'd offer him a piece. He was allowed to sniff as much as he wanted, but if he took it in his mouth, he had to eat it. He was very fond of string cheese. :) No abuse involved. If he dropped it--not spit it out, which once in awhile happened and I figured he really didn't like it and threw it out--just dropped it--I'd point at it. He'd eat it. That was the rule. You can have some of my food if you want to eat it but you can't use it to make a mess on the floor. Having a must taste it once rule is an ongoing and known thing between the child and adult. It can be discussed and evaluated as to whether it's working for the family. One makes allowances. The kid who doesn't like any soup doesn't have to try the new soup. The kid who is really revolted by the appearance beyond a perfunctory "Ew! What's that?" can be given a pass. A lot of times, however, kids (especially under 10) "don't like" foods because they don't like the name, they don't like the color of the dish it's in, the shape reminds them of something non-food they don't like, etc. They're busily trying to process it, and don't have a lot to compare it to. Sometimes, they also will like a dish made with ingredients they don't like, because they like the story that goes along with it. While variety of foods is a really excellent way to eat, there is so much new information bombarding kids daily, that they often enjoy food they know more because of the familiarity, and ease of processing what they're experiencing, and the desire to repeat and reinforce pleasant experiences. Adults are often the opposite--something may seem more delicious than it really is if it's a totally new flavor or combination. That's because almost everything has some kind of familiarity and tasting something new lights up the neurons.