DS smells strange

[kemosabeimalone]

DS is 11 ( 12 in January). Over the last few months he has developed an odd smell - it’s sort of sour and unclean smelling, quite strong and seems to be coming from his head / hair. It’s not a sweaty smell like BO but I do think it is hormonal. It smells like if you haven’t washed your hair in weeks. He has very oily hair and has to wash it every other day ( I supervise to make sure he does it properly) but even after freshly washing he will smell odd again a few hours later. He seems completely unaware of it and I don’t want to make a big issue if if it and make him paranoid but had anyone else experienced this? I don’t want him to be the smelly kid when he starts his new school in September but if I find it offensive and I’m his mum I dread to think how others will find it!

Yes I think it's just kid-stink. My DD has it too. Like you say, not exactly BO but sort of dirty.

It’s comforting he’s not the only one. How old is your daughter Plantsitter? I wasn’t expecting the smelly stage till the teenage years and then was expecting it to be controllable with deodorant and daily showers.

Smelly Hair Syndrome

My 8 year old always seems to have smelly hair. Even the day after it's been washed. Glad to know it's not just him!

Is he drinking more than usual?

I would be making him wash every day if the smell is that strong.

Moose - just googled and this really fits - thank you. It says it can be fungal so I’ll try some TGel on him. I’ve probably inadvertently been making things worse by using a clarifying lemon shampoo! . Good to have something else to try!

Have you tried different shampoo?

Moreover the green stuff - well he sometimes gets desperate for water before bed which we try to limit as he sleeps heavily and will sometimes wet the bed if he drinks after 8pm. In the day we have to nag him to drink so he could be dehydrated.

Someoneelse -we were using baby shampoo until a month or so ago then we swapped to one for greasy hair (a lemon one) but it’s got worse recently. I will try an anti fungal one to see if that helps.

My DD is 11 and honestly when I've been into school all the y6s smell similar! But I try the anti fungal shampoo too just in case!

I wasn’t expecting the smelly stage till the teenage years

Try the anti fungal shampoo but this does sometimes happen as children are about to go through puberty. My son's hair rarely smells nice when a few hours have passed after it being washed. This is beginning to pass now he is 15 and seems to have almost finished with puberty. He started around 12 years old as well

Yup thats eau de teen, I found it was worst between 12-14 it gets better after that. Get them into the habit of showering everyday, mine pref before bed I put a few drops of tea tree into the shampoo. They wash & change their bedding weekly.

@MooseBeTimeForSummer. I thought you were joking! OMG I've never heard of that!

@kemosabeimalone

This site seems pretty good.

www.nykaa.com/beauty-blog/nasty-beauty-ssshhh-the-smelly-scalp-and-hair-syndrome/

Good luck solving it!

Boys are smelly. They start wanking around that age. Schtink central.

My DS hair started smelling of fish, it took me a while to realise it was probably the supplements with added fish oil that was causing it!
Regarding shampoo, I use alphosyl which is a strong smelling coal tar shampoo, for my itchy scalp, it might help neutralise your DS hair smell?

It’s teenage boy smell!! I use to make such mine showered twice a day, had clean cloths everyday, and changed the bedding every week and they still had that smell!, it’s a greasy oily smell, of Course to be fair I think they might have just stood in the shower and not done much washing.
If you think that your son smells bad now what until your son goes to uni the hall and the flats just stink of boys!!

Would a dry shampoo help inbetween washes?