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?

Actually @Aglet makes a good point. I’d go as hot as the bedding can stand and loads of detergent and extra rinse and maybe add one of those detol bacteria killing wash things (think it’s detoll that do it?).

Sorry to suggest it but could your some be smoking pot and it’s the after smell lingering on his clothes and room?

@Aglet

The problem may be that the temperatures we use for our washing don't kill bacteria. If you can get bedding that can go on a 90° wash and be dried outside in the sun, you may solve the problem. This was the solution to a lingering smelly bedding problem from from the family pooch.

I really don't think this smell has anything to do with bacteria at all. Like I've said before I believe this is strong hormone smell. The OP sounds like she has done everything possible to combat the mystery. She sounds like a super clean mum. I'd be interested to know if after he has left his room and you have opened the window wide go back in after half an hour and if that stench has gone you know it has nothing to do with bacteria.

Op , having read lots of these comments I do think you are doing more than enough around hygiene. Your poor son on the other hand must now have a complex and I really feel for him . My DS is 15 and our home often smells of ' boy' particularly since school has been closed. I remind him to do his laundry etc but I wouldn't be constantly asking him to try this that and the other, the poor boy can't help it.

The problem is not to do with hygiene standards. It is to do with us all being told to wash at low temps to save the planet, but these don't clean the washing regardless of the cause of the odour. There are plenty of scientific experiments rhat back this up.

he's 15 - they seem to have a cloud of funk that marks their territory at that age!!

Roll ons often dont work. Mine has a shower, uses deodorant and 10 mins later stinks from across the room. Sure antiperspirant is the only thing that keeps him from funking up the house.

Also bio laundry detergent gets the funk out of shirt pits and tops that no-bios just cant (i find with mine when it's washed it smells clean but body heat brings the stink back out - bio wash gets rid of that).

It's part of having a teenage boy - you cant really get rid of it and it does pass. Just dont give him a complex about it by going OCD about cleaning the smell off.

Many years ago a Young Offenders Institution was looking for voluntary literacy aides. I went for interview and the tutor snapped me up with gratitude. But, my God, the SMELL of the place. Education fell by the wayside, couldn't bear to return. I'd rather clean stables.

You say that the smell must be him but when you sniff him, he doesn’t smell?
I know people are talking a lot about how teenage boys just smell, but just to eliminate all possibilities, if you think it is his room rather than him, sometimes light fittings can degrade and if they are heated by a hight wattage bulb, they can release a stench when they are on.

If your teenager is averse to having the windows/ curtains open like so many perhaps he is using the electric light a lot?

Just a thought, as you seem to be very clean.

My DSS bedroom smells baaad. But he rarely changes his sheets or washes any items of clothing, so it’s no surprise.

Does he drink a lot of water, have a healthy diet? Maybe what he's eating is detoxing through sweat pores etc.
Shower before bed and when he gets up maybe?

I feel so sorry for your son :(

Yikes, poor chap. Its probably something really obvious- I'm guessing night sweats. I think all teenage boys give off some sort of odour, it makes it less hard when they leave home !!! Try getting him to wear a T shirt at night and then you can see if it stinks in the morning. If it does then I have no solution, except to get him to sleep in the garden (Tent ?)
Good luck.

We had the same with my grandsons room. Cleaned it thoroughly but it still stank. My daughter then threw away his pillow and replaced it with a new one and hey presto smell has gone. She now replaces the pillow monthly.....(you can get them really cheap)

Sorry but I can’t face reading the whole thread so I apologise if this has already been said. The smell is testosterone and it is completely normal. Sorry!

Haven't RTFT but have read your posts. Is it a sweet sickly smell? I see a PP suggested diabetes and this was my initial thought too. Might be worth a test?

Seriously, trust those of us who have older boys. They can't help it. It's not a cleanliness issue. As they get older it will go.
It is literally the smell of testosterone.

It’s testosterone. It stinks. I have two teenage boys. It makes me gag in the morning. I’m hoping it passes soon.

I have 2 x 19 yr olds boys here. Their rooms used to really smell, despite all efforts. The high levels of testosterone do smell, and will get better. However, our dog got very interested in an old pringles tube in one of their rooms at the time, and pinched it. When I retrieved said item, it did not contain pringles, but a foul smelling sock...result - one very red faced DS ...draw your own conclusions.

It's the sheets. I know exactly the smell you mean.

It's the teenage musk smell. It's vile and potent and I'm still waiting for my DS20 to lose it (but he always was a late developer!)

Try asking him to do the double wash on his pits and bits.

Hot hot water
loads of soap
scrub it around
rinse with hot water
loads of soap
scrub it around
rinse

I also second finding a bar soap he likes (some of the moisturising ones dont leave you feeling so clean, so try a tea tree oil or lemon soap) Shower gels are notorious for leaving a residue on the skin that turns funky after a few hours

A fan in the room is a great idea, you can also get small plug in air purifiers/filters that are quite good at knocking down any residual smell

Oooh. Oooh. I think I know what it might be. Old T-shirts that have been sweaty in the past. Even when washed. Probably favourites that have been worn and worn and worn. Sniff around the neck bit where the fabric is thick. Or maybe the collar of his dressing gown. Get a real noseful and see if it’s the same smell.

Does he eat spicy food ie garlic? Curry etc., try using a spray deodorant rather than roll on. Could there be something lurking in his room ie smelly socks, stale food etc.,

Have any of his friends complained? Does he smell other than in the bedroom?

I do feel for you but hopefully this will pass soon. Good luck

Meant to add. Could he have a urine infection?

Not read the whole thread (sorry - at work, trying to read without being in trouble with the boss!), but biological washing powder needs to be used at under 40 degrees, or the enzymes which do the work are inactivated.
Probably night sweat as suggested, but still definitely and infinitely better than Lynx Africa (which surely was designed by the mother of a teenage son, who didn't want him to have girlfriends yet)?

This might be weed you can smell. It lingers and even if they don’t smoke in the house they sweat it. It’s like a damp/earthy but really strong smell. Just a thought as been there with my son.