Is this early?

I have all sisters, and honestly can't remember when WE started to have body odor.
Anyways, my twins sons are 8 1/2 years old. During a bath recently, DH said they had "smelly armpits". I didn't think that was the whole problem -- I thought maybe they aren't washing themselves at all well. (They recently began to take over their bathing, so now Dh and I mainly supervise instead of wash children. We still set the schedule, though, since the boys *rarely* see the need to bathe!)
So, I stepped up the frequency of baths -- but then I also noticed that they really do smell. You just have to be extremely close to notice it, but why didn't they???
Anyways, I ended up buying them deodorant (Thought anti-perspirant wasn't a good idea for them yet.)
Also, at each meal one of the boys eats salami and ham and cheese like he hasn't seen food for days -- like he's going through a growth spurt. As I write this, I think, "What's the problem -- growing boys eating more and smelling??" but is this normal for boys this young?

I should've read on before I posted -- I found another post that asked the same sort of question about a 7 year old. I'll mention it to their doctor, but it could be nothing.

 

My ds is almost 11. He's been wearing deoderant since around 8. I thought it was kind of young. But doctor said boys(and girls) are all differant in when they start going through the changes.

 

So far, my boys are remarkably unsmelly, but then so is DH. However, Jackson has a friend who just turned 8, and that kid's feet are the foulest I've ever encountered. When he slept over here, he took off his shoes in Jackson's room, and it was almost unbearable in there. DH actually took the shoes out to the garage and left them there overnight, because the whole house was starting to reek.

 

We had this discussion here before...I went back a few pages to post a link, but couldn't find it. Anyway, from my experience with my older dd who started with armpit odor (B.O.) at age 9 and some of my current friends dd's that are about 9-10 like my twins are now some of them NEED deodorant and others do not. So it's not really too early for your boys to be starting with it. Usually the odor comes with the start of armpit hair. My second oldest dd never did "smell" and neither do my twins even though they are now shaving their armpits (well, I'm shaving them and very infrequently I might add!). Everyone is different ardon: .

 

Not unusual at all. I teach third grade(8-9 yo's) and there are always a few kiddos-both boys and girls-who develop body odor during the year. One year, I looped with my class from third to fourth grade. My class had been relatively unsmelly in third grade. Well, after the first time we went to PE in fourth grade, I was walking around my classroom trying to figure out what this foul smell was. It took me a minute, but I realized it was my students! What a difference a summer made.

 

My 9 year old DD just starting wearing deoderant this fall. She didn't reak, but I was she told me she had stinky sweaty pits. I checked and they were kinda smelly, but not bad. I was glad though that she wanted deoderant. Sometimes it's so hard to get kids in the habit of wearing it at that age.

 

My nephew at age 7 has the need for deodorant. I have heard it was getting younger & younger.

 

Our poor Abby needed to start wearing it around 6 1/2. She doesn’t need it everyday...mainly on the days she has fitness or PE at school. The dr told me it wasn’t anything to worry about unless she started showing other signs of puberty. So far so good. It scared me to pieces though!!!

On a side note….while I was shopping a week or so ago I noticed that the plain old orange Dial antibacterial bath soap said on its package that it prevents body odor. I was going to get her a bar and give it a try…I hate that she’s already needing an antiperspirant/deodorant and have heard it isn’t good for kids to be exposed to the chemicals in the antiperspirant part…and haven’t been able to find just a deodorant.

 

Hope you don't mind me jumping in here, but I we chatted about this a little on the 1-4 board. Are you giving your kids organic milk? If not, maybe you should try that. One of the things that came up on our board is that non-organic milk obviously has hormones and antibiotics in it. One family in the news reported that their 3 or 5 year old started getting acne and body odor. Once they switched to organic milk both problems went away. Just a thought. I know organic milk is more expensive, but I believe it is worth it. I've been researching this lately for a twins group I will be speaking at about health issues and IMHO organic is the way to go.

 

My 8 year old started wearing deoderant this past summer due to definite body ordor.

 

Berkley would die if I posted this. . . mostly because she has no idea I've noticed it on her! LOL!
She's almost 7 and really big for her age - 51" and 65lbs, no idea if that's relevant{?}
If she wears a polyester blend top, her little pits smell bad too.
She wears little leotards to gymnatstics and one of them is definitely a poly blend and her little cheer uniform is as well.
My kids have been on organic milk exclusively sicne they began drinking milk, I've noticed it's ONLY when she wears something not 100% cotton.
I have her wash her pits w/ a washcloth before getting out of the tub.

 

My 9 yr old son started wearing it about a year ago -

 

My dd got in the car one day and I've got some smelly pits myself, and I was checking myself, and sniffed her direction and sure enough, she got the bad gene from me! LOL That was 2 summers ago, and she was just 10.

My dh doesn't use deoderant at all. He just simply doesn't need it. I wish I could say that. . .