Hello everyone,
My daughter is 6 - she's obviously showing no signs of puberty yet, and it's waaaay to early to have armpit odor caused by hormones, am I right? I have an 8 year old son as well and he does not have any armpit odor at all.
So I'm worried that this underarm smell is caused by some serious medical problem because little children are not meant to have sweat that stinks like an adult's, but I know I have a tendency to worry more than is good, so I am just going to ask how I can get rid of this awful armpit odor in a little girl. It's not really safe for her to use deodorant yet, is it?
Cheers
It is so hard to tell the difference between situations that require real concern and situations that have us acting like hypochondriacs for no reason! I completely understand where you are coming from.
However, significant body odor in prepubescent children can, actually, the a sign of real health problems. Both Phenylketonuria and Trimethylaminuria are serious diseases that can be life threatening and that cause body odor in children. I am not saying that your daughter has these, because they are rare diseases and I don't mean to worry you at all.
What I am saying is that seeing your pediatrician is indeed warranted in this situation. If he or she tells you your child's body odor is caused by something else, you can put your mind at rest. If something is going on, you'd rather know it of course.
Rosie
This actually sounds familiar to me as I have had body odor since I was a little girl, and now one of my children is struggling with the same thing. Though it can be the sign of a medical problem, it can also just be genetics. My solution, which I read about on the internet a long while back, is to wash her armpits with head and shoulder's dandruff shampoo a few times a week. I also use a diluted version of tea tree oil to combat the odor causing bacteria, and it seems to work pretty well. There is no need to turn to deodorant yet.
Hope that helps :)
Hi, I had the same problem with my four year old daughter. I did some digging around, and found the advice to cut dairy from her diet and switch her to organic foods. I thought if it doesn't work, it can't do any harm either, so I tried. Sure enough, the odor completely went away! This is a few months ago and I am still wondering whether to introduce dairy again, so I will have a chat with our pediatrician sometime soon. Anyway, I thought you might like to try the same and see if it makes any difference?
Well, I know I'd start with implementing a daily hygiene routine if you haven't already done that. I know a lot of kids that age do not yet need daily showers, but in this case, it seems like it would be best for your daughter to shower once a day, with a good wash that contains antibacterial ingredients. Tea tree sounds like a great suggestion there.
Have her shower either in the morning or at night, and then have her do a quick but thorough wash with the same body wash either when she gets up or before bed, depending on when she prefers to have a shower.
A lot of deodorants contain nasty ingredients, so I'd also look for a natural deodorant that is free of aluminum. A stick deodorant will probably be better than an aerosol for her.
If plain old soap and water doesn't take care of the matter, I might offer a natural deodorant, but that probably won't be necessary. Of course, if it smells like fish, you need to take her to the pediatrician.
I thought body odor only started after kids entered puberty! I hope there isn't something medical going on that could be causing the stink. Maybe you ought to go and see your doctor about this. But maybe it is good to make her have a daily shower and start washing her clothes more regularly, I mean like you would do for adults. I imagine this is quite a social problem for her.