Please help me pinpoint the source of the smell in my teenage son's bedroom

[Smallsteps88]

I know plenty of you have raised teenagers so I’m hoping some of you will know what this is.

He’s 15. Showers every day including washing hair. Brushes his teeth once a day at least, twice if he remembers in the morning. He uses roll on deodorant daily. He spends his days barefoot and the shoes he wears out of the house are kept downstairs. His clothes are washed daily. He has a laundry basket that they stay in and it is emptied every evening. There are no dirty pants/socks/anything lurking in his room because I completely stripped the room bare last weekend, moved all furniture, washed absolutely everything, including his mattress, all surfaces, bed linen, curtains. The whole lot. He doesn’t wear pyjamas and the offending smell does transfer to his bedsheets. So it’s coming off his body but I just don’t know how! He is washed every day. It is a bodily smell but doesn’t smell like BO. It is horrible though and his room is small and gets warm and stuffy so the smell is strong. His window and curtains are open for a few hours a day. I would have them open all day but he spends a lot of time in his room and likes to close them. The smell is from him but if I sniff him he doesn’t smell. If he leaves his bedroom door open the smell comes through the house.

Please help. I feel awful constantly reminding him to open his windows and asking to sniff his hair to see if it’s clean but we really need to get to the bottom of this. The smell is really horrible.

Can anyone shed any light and/or recommend some products he/we can use to combat this?

It's not him. It's you. Mother's find their teen son's smell offensive. I read once that it's natures way to prevent incest but I don't know if that's true. It doesn't last long. Don't give him a complex. He sounds amazing. Washing so well, putting his clothes in the laundry basket, not wearing the same stuff over and over. Give him a break. Stop trying to 'fix' him. It's your hormones. Not him.

My brother's room stank when he was a teenager, mainly of farts and greasy skin and hair.

OMG. My boy is 9 and this thread makes me cry for the future 🙈🙈🙈

Yawn. I’m not trying to “fix” him. I’m trying to ensure he isnt reeking. Like any responsible parent would do. FWIW, and I have already stated this, my other son can smell the smell too.

My son's room never really smelt. Since he's back from uni he's had to move into the box room and in the more confined space seems to be sweating more than he did before. He was always small for his age and only really started growing at 16 - he is now 6 foot! i got him a lot more deodorant and hes never out of the shower.

His room started to smell - could not work out what it was but it wasn't BO.

Turned out to be the new mattress we bought him - sort of a stuffy warehouse smell. I got one of those aroma things that squirt every time you walk in so it smells lovely now

Exactly the same problem here, slightlly easing now he is 21 but my god they stink don't they? DDs room is nothing like her brothers but she's just as untidy.

We have open plan so can go through the whole house no matter how clean I am. Sympathies OP.

It is a particular boy smell. Guessing testosterone. It takes a lot longer than age 20 to pass. I’m amazed any of mine got girlfriends. Older men also smell. But of a different whiff. Probably women do, too.

Would this be of any use OP?
I stumbled across it quite by accident on Amazon the other day. It has very good reviews! 😁

Same problem for a while: turned out the cat had brought a mouse in and it had crept off and died under the furniture. Might not be an actual dead rodent in OP's (very clean!) house, but there could be something deceased behind the skirting boards or under the flooring.

It sounds just like the smell of teenage boy.... They just have that teenage boy smell that we probably didn't notice when we were teenagers ourselves.
They get out the other side 🤞 my 19 year old has almost lost it ..... My 16 year old didn't have such a boy smell ..... Fingers crossed this continues 😊

Think you sound like a fab mum Good luck😁

@Arthersleep

Would this be of any use OP? I stumbled across it quite by accident on Amazon the other day. It has very good reviews! 😁

😂😂😂

I’ll keep it in mind!

It’s not a “dead thing” type of smell. I’ve had dead things before and they’re a distinctive smell but this isn’t. I’m convinced now it’s his hormones he is sweating out during the night. Hot weather making it worse. I’ve now ordered him a fan for his room.

Yes they can really stink and are unable to smell it. Plus they can have a touch of the Kevins as well. Now you cant chain them in the shed. So you need a bloke to say. You are producing hormones that produce oily sweat in your pits and groins.....it stinks!!! You are a man now wash all the stinky bits twice a day or you will never get laid. Thats what I said so I'm sure a bloke would be more sensitive.
Get him antiseptic soap.( or man soap as it is called in my house) ditch all the synthetic fibres cotton is best. This will pass. Save up for a second bathroom as girls or boys are on the horizon and you will never get in tbe bathroom again .

Hormones and semen. Teenage boys masturbate A LOT and even when they fall asleep exhausted, they have wet dreams.

My son's room smelt really acrid. It made me gag.

100% Cotton sheets and no more anti perspirants - just a deodorant - seemed to help. My mum always said, if they don't sweat under their arms, it comes out their feet more concentrated. I reckon there's a bit of truth in that!

I'm sorry to break it to you, but it is just the smell of teenage boy. I was warned by my sisters to expect it and now have this stinky problem with my 14yr old. An offensive, meaty, smell . I'm reliably informed it passes. I'm looking forward to that

Stale biscuits? Yup, that’s the smell of boy.

Does his breath smell? This can be linked to diabetes. Is he very thirsty most of the time?

Maybe he needs to switch up his shower gel and deodorant.

My OH is a very clean man, showers at least once a day. Very good hygiene all round. Though, His body gets used to a product and he'll start to become immune and get stinky. He has a few different varieties that he alternates every so often.

It sounds like he is smoking cannabis/weed you are describing the smell very well.

He is hoarding something. Toenail clippings?

Oddly, my teenage daughters claim their brother smells foul, but I never notice!

Maybe years of teaching teenage boys have desensitised me. I notice the post pe whiff, but girls just as much as boys.

@Smallsteps88

Turns out, he'd asked DD for help that day, who had basically stuffed cotton wool up her nose for the stink and shaved his pits for him, and taught him what to do.

Oh this is so funny!!

Yes, I laughed for ages when I found out later that day

If DS had a bath and washed his hair, the bathroom reeked of wet dog for ages afterwards.

It’s just teenage boys smell, that’s the way they smell!! Also halls of residence that have lots of boys in smell the same.

Mine use to shower twice a day, clean cloths every day, clean bedding every week, plus pillowcase change every other day, and they had that smell, it seems to go way when they hit about 19/20.