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?

Sweaty balls.

It must be night sweats. I went out with a guy who was super hairy and sweat bucket loads at night. In the morning the sheets stank and were wet through. Unpleasant to say the least. Not sure if your son is hairy of back, or even if excess body hair is linked to night sweating. Maybe a fan would help? Or would that just blow the smell around too much.

Is is a slightly fishy smell? I remember my brothers french exchange student smelling like this, turns out it is an actual condition, they cant help it. Go to doctors

Two teenage boys here and they def have a teenage boy smell to there rooms and they shower daily etc but there rooms still smell , almost a stale smell . I just go in as little as possible and encourage windows to be open , maybe a bit of febreeze in rooms if we have visitors

Oh leave him alone

My DS had really sweaty pits, even a shower couldn't help.

A couple ofyears ago, I came home to find that he'd shaved his pits, and he now keeps them shaved. He reckoned this really helps him keep his pits clean. 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. Relative ages were 15(DS) and 19(DD) at the time. She said, never again I recall I was howling with laughter as they described it.

But there we go. I'm just grateful that DS is good at keeping his clothes clean, as well as himself, and I don't have to prompt him like I did when he was younger. If he finds shaving helpful, then I'm not going to judge.

I had this with my son and it turned out to be his wall that smelt! He plays the PlayStation in a chair with his feet on the wall! Took ages to locate the smell but that definitely what it was as I scrubbed it and the smell went!

15 year old boy's rooms smell like the grave. Like the boy actually died in there and rotted overnight.

I had this problem with my son's room. Drove me nuts. Eventually traced it to the seat of his computer chair! 🤮 too many hours spent gaming! Febreeze for fabric did the trick!

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!!

Any secondary school teacher will tell you that you can always tell when year 8 and 9 boys have been in a classroom by the terrible smell in it after they have left. Like the other posters, I'm afraid it is an age thing. Their hormones are in overdrive and it makes their sweat even worse. Very unpleasant but they outgrow it.

Just to add my penny worth.

Replace shampoo and even shower gel with Nizoral (the pink one as it has an anti fungal in it). It's safe to use as shower gel.

Top tip for teens in general actually as a lot of acne isn't just plain hormonal acne but is instead fungal related-tell tale sign is lots of redness, small bumps that don't have a head to burst and spots/bumps in the same place but don't ever seem to actually go away.

If this is all fungal related and I know the smell from my own lot (it's very particular and can be quite pungent), it's just an overgrowth of yeast.

If you want to go down the natural route, use apple cider vinegar instead.

Whichever one you use, this is also a good way of getting rid of dandruff (which is often caused by said overgrowth of yeast i.e. a fungal infection).

Hth.

Check he's using an antiperspirant and not just a deodorant and also he needs to put it on when his skin is completely dry .. so not straight after a shower or if he is sweating as the active ingredient, aluminium can't penetrate wet skin

Op is he washing properly? With scrub?

Yep it’s teenage boy smell,I’ve had two boys the eldest reeked,I’m super clean and went through everything, couldn’t get to the bottom of it,I used to cringe when he came to sit with us, and hugged the cushions as I’d have to wash them straight after bless him,he grew out of it. The younger one never smelt odd, very strange.

In our house the roller blind had absorbed pong...replacing it did the trick.

I feel quite sorry for this guy! Poor thing having to have his mum rooting around him like a pig snouting for truffles and getting deep cleaned every week.

Can confirm nothing smells quite like teenage boy. 😷

Ah yes that teenage scent! 🤮
You’ll be relieved to know that it’s not just teenage boy but also girls. My eldest DD 17, likes to fester in her room and keep all the windows closed, doors closed and curtains closed! Basically as dark and sweaty as possible even with a ceiling fan! It makes me rage! She showers daily but that smell is what I can only describe as sweaty teenager. I will be thankful when school starts back up in September so I can air out the bar cave and wash and febreeze everything!

@anothermansmother

We went into a shop recently that smelt the same, ds couldn't smell it but my mum my dd and I all could.

Was it a pet shop perchance?

Sorry to tell you but it's just teenage boy smell. I have one also.

I feel quite sorry for this guy! Poor thing having to have his mum rooting around him like a pig snouting for truffles and getting deep cleaned every week.

Well you can instantly feel better for him because none of that happens.

Sounds like a normal teenage boy smell! I remember my brothers room absolutely stank and my nephew went through it aswell. I have a 9 year old son and I'm definitely NOT looking forward to the teenage years!! He sounds like he is keeping himself clean and his bedroom is well cleaned and aired, its hormones and it will get better in time. I don't think there is any magical solution I'm afraid 🤷‍♀️

Could it be from his sneezes? I knew someone who had sneezes that smelt like rapeseed. The smell would linger after a sneeze. If so, could be a sinus infection

It's a hormone thing, my son and my friend's son both had the same issue for a year or two. One thing that helped was using antiperspirant deodorant rather than spray like Lynx.

I have not read whole thread, just op's comments.
I am wondering it it's anything to do with the floor. Laminate flooring is not designed to be mopped, it is not waterproof and perhaps the underlay is rotting?

I have 3 boys, I do like the idea that smell is designed by nature to put mum's off.