Should I see the GP about my six-year-old daughters body odour?

[Cazza3010]

Hi, my daughter is 6, 7 next month and we have noticed for a few months now that she gets really smelly armpits. She has a bath/shower every day but especially when she comes home from school her clothing under the arms smells really strong. I get thru may be running around a lot so get sweaty but the other day one of the boys said she smelled of onions! She doesn't get it every day though & some days it's not noticeable. She also has quite hairy legs & my husband thinks we should take her to the Dr just to get her checked in case she's showing early signs of hormones.

Has anyone else experienced this? I don't want to make a big deal out of it with my daughter as I don't want her to be self conscious, but also don't want to ignore it if there might be an issue.

Many thanks

It's a very quick and easy process to get this checked. We had this, plus some other symptoms and the checks showed our daughter potentially starting early puberty, which wouldn't have been a good thing. However it turned out just to be early adrenarche rather than full puberty and it has levelled out over the years. Now at 12 she is right on target with development for her age, so hopefully you'll also find out it's nothing serious but it's best to get it checked.

I would go to a GP because that’s fairly unusual in very young children and could be a sign of early puberty. However, to ensure she doesn’t lose confidence I would speak to the GP without her in the room and tell my DD it is just a normal check up.

In the meantime, perhaps try some natural deodorant (not an anti-perspirant) to limit the smell?

Hi, my daughter had this and it was early puberty. She had the BO smell initially and then about a year later started developing, I couldn’t get her to the doctor earlier during Covid but luckily caught in time to start the injections to delay the process.

Do you eat lots of onions and garlic? Maybe cut back on them a bit. Heavy allium-based food can cause onion sweat at any age.

Thanks for the replies, I've done some googling & read it could be signs of early puberty or adrenarche, but just wanted to see others experiences. I've asked for an appointment to see the Dr just to get it checked out.

Thanks for posting this. We have noticed this lately with my 8 year old daughter. I am booking a medical appointment now.

Absolutely take her. There are a few health conditions that can cause BO too. Btw, are you supervising her showers? My DD went through a phase of running the shower and sitting on the floor. I think she was a year or two older, but I had to watch her physically get in.

My daughter was fairly young around 7 or 8 when she got armpit smells. We just introduced her to deodorant which did the trick. She developed normally and went through puberty at a normal age. I think kids do sweat in the man made fabrics which make up school uniform.

I've ordered her some kids deodorant which will be here tomorrow & hopefully the Dr will call tomorrow.

We are aways there with her when she has her bath or shower & make sure she has a good clean, she's really good at that so happy that she's washing properly.

See what the Dr says. Thank you all again 🙂

Using real.bar soap, not shower gel or beauty bars will help too.

I'd see if you can get her zinc levels checked. There's a saying "if you stink and you can't think, you need zinc." I've certainly found that my child starts to smell when he doesn't take zinc supplements, but the smell stops when he takes them regularly. (In the past, bloodwork suggested deficiency.)

As other posters my 6 year old daughter had the onion smell and public hair starting to sprout. She was also very tall for her age despite Dp and me not being especially tall. She had blood tests and x-rays to check bone plate growth and was diagnosed with premature adrenarche.
Take her to the gp, if it is premature puberty it is much better to be diagnosed early before the bone plates stop growing as then it is too late and children who are tall for their age stop growing early and become short adults.
Hope it goes well.