Babies are often described as sweet, and not just because of their tiny smiles, chubby cheeks, and incredibly cute little faces. There’s also something about that unmistakable newborn scent that makes parents want to keep their noses buried in their babies all day.
But for one mom, her newborn’s “sweet” smell was a little more literal than expected. Her son smelled so strongly of pancakes and maple syrup that she initially assumed she had somehow gotten food on his blankets. What she didn’t know was that the unusual scent was actually a clue that something was wrong.
Megan and Devaughn brought their newborn son home, where Megan noticed he had a strange, sickeningly sweet smell like pancakes and maple syrup
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After the newborn’s heel-prick test came back inconclusive, Megan researched the possible causes and discovered the smell could be linked to Maple Syrup Urine Disease
Megan Popps and her partner, Devaughn Debelak, welcomed their son, Leo Debelak, in February 2026. After routine testing, the new mom was discharged and the family headed home to settle into life with their new baby. However, after arriving home, Megan noticed that her baby didn’t have the typical newborn scent parents might expect. Instead, she described it as “sickeningly sweet”, comparing it to pancakes and maple syrup.
Now, Megan remembered being given pancakes to eat while she was in the hospital and wondered whether she had accidentally spilled some on her baby or his blankets. “We had mentioned to each other a few times that Leo smelled very sweet,” she said.
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“It’s a very sugary, pancake smell, it’s sickeningly sweet like maple syrup”. The smell continued, but there was no obvious source for it. A few days after the family returned home, they received a call informing them that something had come back inconclusive on Leo’s routine heel-prick newborn screening.
The test had been performed while they were still in the hospital, but Leo had already been discharged before the results came back. Megan later learned that the issue involved Leo’s amino acid profile. That prompted her to start researching what could cause an unusual result, and she came across Maple Syrup Urine Disease, or MSUD.
inkdrop / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Doctors confirmed Leo had the rare metabolic disorder, and after three weeks in hospital, he went home needing a strict lifelong diet and careful monitoring
This rare metabolic disorder prevents the body from properly breaking down certain proteins. Despite its unusual name, one of its symptoms can indeed be a distinctive maple syrup-like odor in a person’s urine, sweat or earwax. Once Megan read about the condition, the strange smell she’d noticed on her newborn suddenly seemed a lot less innocent.
“When I looked up the disorder and saw how rare it was, it was hard for us to grasp our brains around the fact that was what was possibly happening,” she said. The family took Leo back to the hospital, where doctors discovered that his amino acid levels were at critical levels. That was when he was diagnosed with MSUD and remained in the hospital for three weeks.
magnific / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Before heading to the emergency room, Megan had even packed some of Leo’s clothes and a soiled onesie to show the doctors what she had been smelling. Thankfully, Leo is now doing well, although his diagnosis means his diet will have to be carefully managed throughout his life.
Megan explained that her son will now need to follow a very strict diet, avoiding meat and dairy and carefully counting his protein intake. He will also remain at risk of metabolic crises, which can be triggered by consuming too much protein, fasting, illness or extreme stress. For Megan, that strange pancake smell ultimately became much more important than she could have imagined.
jcomp / Magnific (not the actual photo)
What initially seemed like an unfortunate case of newborn laundry smelling suspiciously like breakfast turned out to be a warning sign that prompted Leo’s parents to seek answers, and potentially helped them get him treatment before the condition became even more dangerous.
What would you have done if you were in Megan’s shoes? Would a smell like this have made you concerned, or would you have brushed it off as something the baby had picked up? Let us know your thoughts!
Netizens noted that most parents would probably never think to associate a sweet smell with a serious medical condition
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