My 11 year old son

[Chelle87l]

Hi all, my 11 year old son showers every day, uses antiperspirant, and body spray. Obviously, when he's doing sports at school, such as Pe and cricket, his BO is unbearable and no matter how much I quiz him his hygiene or try and talk to him about self care he doesn't care! It's frustrating me so much! Are there any parents out there going through the same thing? I really need some advice on how to make him care! X

Hello, I recently switched to natural deodorant and found that just washing with shower gel isn't always enough to really kill the smell sometimes! I've been using antibacterial soap under my arms and it's worked a treat. I leave the lather on for 30 seconds to work then rinse off. Smell is caused by bacteria so you have to kill it to get rid of the source of the smell, masking with sprays and deodorants won't work. Try Dettol soap or similar, but only on the pits, and perhaps not every day. It's not recommended to use over your whole body as your skin needs some 'good' bacteria.

On advice, someone on here once said they heard a great comment- people won’t tell you you smell, but they will tell other people 😭. My son eg doesn’t put his jumper on until he’s in the car and he takes it off the second he gets home so it’s not sweaty. He has more shirts than my other son as he goes through one daily. He uses antiperspirant roll on (Mitchum or sure) and spray. (And aftershave but your son is very young).

Is he washing properly when in the shower? Actually lifting his arms up, scrubbing with soap and a flannel? One of mine was often a bit ripe and finally admitted to just basically letting the water run over him

Meant to add, when he started properly washing he wasn't half as niffy.

Thank you, I have asked him if he's showering properly, and he said yes. Obviously, being 11, I have to take his word for it 😪 to give him some independence and privacy. X

Some people are smellier than others. It doesn't mean that they don't wash.

Try a stronger deodorant.

I bought my niece a wild deodorant at that age and she was thrilled that it meant she no longer needed to apply deodorant multiple times a day and the case is more discreet in her school bag

Does he need a combined antiperspirant and deodorant? For the smellier among us, we definitely need the two-pronged attack

I'm far from 11 - but, I started using these: https://www.getfussy.com/

Ever since - no smell, absolutely none. More expensive, but genuinely did the trick.