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?

I think we've been really lucky with DS1, we've never had to nag him to wash and wear clean clothes etc. His little brother is 11 and in full throws of puberty and I fear he won't take after his big brother...

Oh, he drinks a LOT of milk. Loads. The smell isn’t milky but could it be this?

Maybe take him for a blood test just to check that the smell isnt coming from internally? Like diabetes, can cause funny breath but not sure about body odour.

Just don't go in his room. Problem solved

Try dairy free for a week and see if any different

Its the smell of boy, its vile I honestly don't think anything gets rid of it. none of my friends with younger sons than mine believed me until it happened to them

@Titsywoo

Just don't go in his room. Problem solved

I could seal it off?

@ChubbyPigeon

The pillow needs more than weekly washing, the hair gets washed daily!

What? The whole pillow?

@KingCatMeowInSpace

Try dairy free for a week and see if any different

I’m going to tentatively suggest this. It won’t go down well.

@CorianderLord

Farts?

My friend taught year 5 (children 9 and 10 years old) and told me that they had to have a conversation with the class EVERY WEEK!! Regarding personal hygiene. For example; “You are all growing up and hormones are appearing so you must wash once a day, use deodorant and wear clean pants and socks as if not the sweating that happens with hormones can cause smells”. The classroom had to be fully aired whenever possible and they told me that following a P.E lesson, the classroom was almost unbearable to be in

Does it smell abit like rotten apples?

b careful not to give the poor guy a complex of being smelly. how its his diet? can anybody else in the house smell it? if nothing else i would just link it to hormones.

@Smallsteps88 - I am sure it is just teenager smell, but when you mentioned he drinks a lot that reminded me of something. My friend’s son had a funny smell for a while, was drinking loads of fizzy drinks, turned out he was a diabetic. I don’t want to alarm you, and I am sure all is ok, but it’s just you mentioning the funny smell that made me recall it, is he feeling ok?
Also, another thing it might be, all the cleaning and washing of clothes, floor etc, could it just be a combination of all the combined fragrances plus closed window? (I don’t clean my DS room anywhere near as much as you!)
Anyway hope you get to the cause soon.

Yes, I think just mum-repellant teenage boy smell. DS (18) is only just starting to smell OK to me again after quite a few years when it was really off-putting. I was amazed his girlfriend could go near him when he was 15/16, but it's clearly not designed to repulse unrelated females!

@ShellsandSand

Does it smell abit like rotten apples?

No not really.

you could try a washable pillow protector.

I would also try an experiment , put him in a another room for week or so, see if that makes difference

Night sweat really stinks in my experience. it's nothing at all like normal sweat and its a really unusual and unique smell. Can you change his sheets and air our his room on a day when he won't be home till late, then go in at night and see if it smells when he's asleep?

b careful not to give the poor guy a complex of being smelly.

Know, I really hate having to keep on about it.

how its his diet? can anybody else in the house smell it?

Diet is good. He’s not the biggest eater but he does eat well. There’s only younger DS in the house and he can smell the smell too. Which I’ve asked him not to announce when he smells it.

I have had the same rank smell from son. I worked out that it was a yeast infection on his scalp and skin. Too much sebum. Very common. Easily remedied by regular washing in strong dandruff shampoo like Nizoral, Selsun Gold, etc. He has to leave it sitting on his body for a few mins at a time before washing off. Smell should be gone in a week or so. Use a shower puff to build up a good lather and you don't need much shampoo at all.

Isn't there a condition that can make some people smell really bad - like rotting fish or something? Can't remember what it is called but it must be really tough. I vaguely recall it is diet related.

Trimethylaminuria - just Googled it

I could have written your post. I can’t get to the bottom of why my 15 yo sons room stinks so much

[quote Paperthin]@Smallsteps88 - I am sure it is just teenager smell, but when you mentioned he drinks a lot that reminded me of something. My friend’s son had a funny smell for a while, was drinking loads of fizzy drinks, turned out he was a diabetic. I don’t want to alarm you, and I am sure all is ok, but it’s just you mentioning the funny smell that made me recall it, is he feeling ok?
Also, another thing it might be, all the cleaning and washing of clothes, floor etc, could it just be a combination of all the combined fragrances plus closed window? (I don’t clean my DS room anywhere near as much as you!)
Anyway hope you get to the cause soon.[/quote]
He doesn’t complain of feeling off but I’ll keep that in mind.

The weekly cleaning is dusting his windowsill and desk, stripping his bed and hoovering and mopping the floor. He does this all himself and I check it after. The big clean I did last weekend happens maybe 2/3 times a year, usually when he goes camping as it’s a good chance to get it all throughly cleaned and aired out. This smell is definitely not a chemically/cleaning smell.

Is it a kinda sour smell? Probs his hair & scalp. Put a drop of tea tree in his shampoo. Its teenage boy should disappear around 20.