8 year old girl with body odour

[clare21]

Very odd but the past two days my daughter's come home from school really quite wiffy. This has come out of the blue, never happened before. I don't think she's been excessively hot at school, it was really cold on Tuesday so I don't know what's up. Any ideas? She's not noticed and I am certainly not flagging it but we are now soaping armpits too in the bath.

My now 8.7 y.o DD started with noticeable body odour when she was only 6. At first it was just if she had been exercising, but now we're at the stage that she needs to shower every day and use a deodorant spray.

I work with Y4 girls (8-9 y.o) and most of them are using some form of deodorant, at least on PE days.

I have gone down the route of saying 'As you get a little bit older, you need to make sure that you're showering and using your spray every day to make sure you smell lovely and fresh even when you're very busy'. She seems to have taken that on board, I'm firmly of the belief that pleasant straight-forwardness is the way to go!!

Have a gentle chat with her about hygiene and buy her some deodorant. One of mine started to need it at about 8 or 9.

I have a similar issue with my DD7. She is very tall for her age and looks about 10. She has been getting odour after sports for the last few months and I have bought her a 'sensitive' deoderant.

Has anyone got any recommendations on which is best to use on young children?

DD1 started in about november when she was 7.11. I bought her a mild deoderant and introduced washing every morning in addition to showers at night.

She uses Bionsen dinky , it's aluminium free and smells lovely!

My dd is nearly 9 and has the same whiff issues as well as blocked pores on her nose. I've got her some Simple wipes for her face and would also appreciate a roll on recommendation.

dinkydoodah what about this? Its actually what I use as I don't like to use chemically things. It won't stop her perspiring but will stop any smell, it is really effective.

My dd has started smelling foxy,really strong.got her a deoderant which has no nasties in it,will try and find it!
Have to make sure she showered more or wipes pits with wipes. It makes my eyes water!

my dd1 has had body odour since she was 7 and we use Tisserand deoderant which is nice and gentle and smells delish so she likes wearing it. She is now 8 and has some pubic hair and a spot I notice today. Lots of tears and emotional upheavals about nothing so she is careening towards puberty it seems!

Thanks for all the recommendations of deoderant Lots to try!

I forgot to add, my DD has got a few blocked pores on her nose too. So sad she seems to be getting these issues at such a young age.

Hi, my daughter turned 9 this week. For the last couple of weeks she's been complaining about itchy armpits, mostly in the evening. There's no rash and no smell or hair but she's itching like crazy. No other puberty signs except she has a tiny bit of pubic hair starting to come through. Has anyone elses daughter had this? She doesn't wear deoderant yet and I've changed her soap - thank you

my dd complained of itching armpits before they started to smell, and the pubic hair seems to have also caused some irritation before it emerged so I think it is all part of the package.

That's what I thought - seems so young. Really want to slow things down a bit - out of our hands I guess. I'll get her some nice deodorant and hopefully it will be a while before the next thing. Thanks.

Alcohol hand rub can be used instead of deodorant because it kills the bacteria which create the smell as they grow.

They need to apply it after washing but it seems pretty effective and it seems to be kinder to sensitive skin i.e. doesn't cause the eczema flare-ups that even sensitive deodorants seem to.

A friend was also told by a nurse that you don't need deodorant if you wash in Hibiscrub but haven't been brave enough to try that yet.

Hi Clare21.
Dd was like this since turning 6. Proper b.o smell. It was awful.As soon as she had a bath or shower i could start to smell it again. She also had acne though and pubic and armpit hair. She used a roll on at first which was useless so uses Vaseline anti-perspirant which seems the best so far. She is now 12 and has always been big though and looks much older than her friends. Gp just said puberty and teenage spots when i took her at 6. Periods started at primary school too. Best wishes but i expect it is just puberty starting - it just seems so early these days!

My dd1 got whiffy for the first time aged 4 - on a very hot, sweaty day in the car. I was horrified, posted here, panicked about premature puberty, etc. She went through a few whiffy on/off months, then it all calmed down and no more whiffiness until she was about 7, and then only on sweaty occasions - but now she is 8.5 any heavy exercise, or active day at school, can cause whiff!

I think it just depends on surges of hormones (which all children have from pre-school years on, apparently) and how that particular body responds to them. Some days more, some days less.

No sign of puberty other than that though, so suspect dd is just unlucky enough to be that kind of body - so bought her (years ago) some natural deodorant and encourage her to use it. I simply tell her some bodies grow up faster in some ways than others, that its natural and that what we do is use deodorant and make sure we wash pits well: she has no embarrassment about it, and is only occasionally resistant to the deodorant

Thank you all very much for your suggestions, I will go off in search for some mild deoderant.

My daughter had obvious body odour from about the age of 8 - sometimes quite strong. Then at about 10 years old , for unrelated reasons she became vegetarian and drastically reduced her dairy intake. No more body odour.