6 year old smelly armpits

[Mismoo]

Hi, we noticed a smell off my 6 year old girls armpits this morning I'm automatically in a panic now, washed her straight away and put a bit of roll on deodorant on and she's fine since but I'm so worried about early puberty

I noticed this with my son at the same age. I was horrified and took him straight to the doctor also worried about puberty.

The GP pointed out that everyone sweats and if that sweat can't escape then it will start to smell- not helped by the high percentage of polyester in school uniforms etc.

After this, I made sure my son was in 100% cotton clothes as much as possible, had a good wash with proper soap morning and night, and he did occasionally use a gentle deodorant. Problem solved.

He is 11 now and in a really good habit of showers, soap and deodorant every day- which is one less battle to have!

At first I felt a mix of sad and awful that he was using deodorant at a young age but honestly- it's no big deal- it takes a few seconds and it's so much better than smelling unpleasant.

We had this recently with my daughter of the same age. The smell was really noticeable even first thing in the morning after a bath the night before. It came on very suddenly.

Like you I was worried about precocious puberty. I called the GP who did take it seriously, particularly as in our case it was also accompanied by some weight loss. The doctor did say he wasn't concerned about puberty as there were no other signs and it is unusual for sweat to be the only sign of puberty starting. He sent us for blood tests to check blood sugar, thyroid function and I think hormone levels.

Her blood test came back showing everything normal in those regards but with a low blood count. So a few weeks later we repeated it and it was normal. In the mean time, the smell suddenly stopped again.

The conclusion was that she had been fighting a virus or low level infection and the sweating was perhaps a symptom of that.

Anyway, I would advise talking to the GP - I was worried I would be seen as wasting their time but I wasn't at all!

For now, we got a good deodorant off Amazon calles 'rock chick' . It is all natural and for kids 6 and up.

It wouldn't be early puberty. It would be early adenarche. Best thing is to get a referral to endocrinologist who can rule out anything else.