My 6 year old has started sleeping buried underneath his duvet recently. He says it’s because he’s scared, even though we let him have a lamp on at night. I don’t care as long as he’s happy and he sleeps.
But because he’s buried under there all night, his bed has started to smell! It’s a horrible, sweet, almost vinegary smell. He doesn’t smell usually, even when it’s hot and he’s running around for hours with his friends and is dripping wet. It just seems to be the sweating at night that smells.
We are washing his bedding regularly on a hot wash, leaving windows open, and pulling the covers back to air the mattress during the day. But it has permeated through to the mattress which has now also started to smell, we think we might even need to get rid of it! His PJs also smell after one night.
It wasn’t bothering me too much, just one of those things and a bit of a pain. I assume eventually he will grow out of it. But my husband noticed this morning that his hair had this same smell when he woke up. Kids can be cruel, and I don’t want this to start being a problem for him at school.
Is there anything I can do? Either to help with the smell, or to try to convince him not to sleep completely submerged?! I’m holding out more hope for the former 