Sweating is pretty common amongst kids. This is mostly due to the fact that your little ones are always super-active throughout the day. Despite of the sweating body odor is not common among kids. However, sometimes things do get out of hands and body odor related problems do seem to pop-up.

Under normal circumstances regular bathing and maintaining proper hygiene resolves the issue. However, in some cases medical interventions become necessary. This article will brief you about tendencies of body odor amongst kids and ways in which you can counter them.

Is Body Odor in kids normal?

Most of the times your child emit some kind of body odor which is noticeable. That is why children below 8 years do not normally emit body odors. However, teenagers along with your preteen children who are entering puberty do tend to emit distinct odor. That means if you get a whiff of abhorring body odor from your 12 year old child then it just might be a sign of puberty. But at the same time it is also a sign that you need to instill some sense of hygiene and take proper precautionary measures to make sure that it does not become a persistent problem.

Body Odor Symptoms in Kids:

Body odor is associated with pungent smell. This kind of smell emanates from a particular part of the body. The smells normally come from your child’s feet, the pubic area and also the armpits. Smell is always the primary symptom. Apart from that there are other symptoms like profuse sweating, sweating during the night whilst your child is sleeping, cold hands and obviously loss of weight.

These symptoms together are caused due to some infection in the endocrine gland of your child. Infections are caused due to the presence of bacteria. But sometimes things get out of hand and your child needs medical intervention. If he/she shows symptoms like pain or constant pressure on the chest, blurry vision, suffering regularly from confusion and shortness of breath then you should immediately seek medical advice.

Body Odor Remedies

In most cases the bad odor in your child emits from the sweaty armpits. The sweaty armpits are direct result of bad hygiene. Excessive physical activities coupled with the unclean clothes add to the problem. There are many ways in which you can combat the problem of body odor in your child. The following are the basic few remedies for body odor in kids. The remedies include home remedies as well as regular hygiene related tips.

1. Maintaining Personal Hygiene

This is perhaps the first and the most important step is to make your child aware of his/her personal hygiene. If your child is 8 years old or less then it is the ideal time to start teaching him/her the importance of personal hygiene. If your child is a preteen then you must talk to him/her about the necessity of maintaining personal hygiene. Instill the habit of washing their hands everyday along with the habit of cleaning their groins, armpit and feet.

2. Clean Clothes

Make sure that your children always wear clean and dry clothes. Their clothes must be washed regularly and consciously discourage them to repeat clothes including jeans, shorts or skirts. This caution is necessary as many teenagers and children in their preteen tend to stick to their favorite t-shirt or jeans and tend to wear them repeatedly. Also if the weather is moist then the clothes need to be washed on a regular basis. This is because of the fact that the moist weather attracts bacteria.

3. Clean Shoes

Along with the clothes the shoes also needs to be dry and clean. Wet and unclean shoes can create bacterial contamination in your child’s feet which will result in the formation of body odor and other sort of infections.

4. Drinking of Water

Make sure that your little one is always hydrated. Drinking of water helps your child’s body to get rid of all the harmful toxins that might create body odor.

5. Replace Cow Milk

Sometimes regular intake of cow milk can be a cause of certain sort of body odor in your child. This is mostly due to the presence of lactose. In such cases you can always replace cow milk with any other organic milk including almond milk or soy milk.

6. Replace Body Odor Creating Foods

Garlic and onion has the tendency of creating body odor. If your child is too much exposed to such things you can replace them with milder alternatives which will cut down on the overall odor formation.

7. Prefer Cleaner & Greener Foods

Body odor related problems in your child can be solved by offering him/her with organic herbs like sage and rosemary. Also side-by-side you should also aim to increase the overall consumption of the various leafy greens and vegetables for your child. The leafy greens has the ability to cleans your child’s system from any sort of harmful toxins thereby curing the overall body odor related problems.

8. Treating Bath Water with Lemon Juice

Sprinkling few drops of lemon juice in your child’s bath water often helps the cause. Lemon juice is known to increase the overall pH level in your child’s body and it will prevent him/her from sweating more.

9. Apply Lemon Juice on their Armpits

Pouring some small amount of lemon juice on cotton ball and dabbing it on your child’s armpits also helps him/her to get rid of pungent body odors. If you even do it for once a day then also it will be of immense use.

10. Apply Apple Cider Vinegar

Similarly applying apple cider vinegar with the help of cotton balls on your child’s armpits also solves the purpose. This helps in keeping your child’s armpits dry, throughout the day, and helps him/her fight the body odor related problems.

11. Treating Bathwater with Rosemary

Apart from feeding rosemary to your child you can also boil some of the herb in a cub and add it to his/her bath water. Rosemary contains menthol and chlorophyll and that essentially fights the toxins and the bacteria that create the pungent odors in children. If you add a cup of boiled rosemary in your child’s bathtub then make sure that he/she soaks in it for at least 15 minutes or so. You can also use rosemary oil in the bathwater of your child.

12. Use Sage as a natural Deodorant

Sage, as an herb, has a fantastic property of fighting hyperactivity of your child’s sweat glands. All you need to do is boil a cup of dried sage leaves and then add it in the bathwater of your child.

13. Create a Homemade Natural Deodorant

Commercial deodorants may not be effective for your teenage or preteen child. This is mostly because the chemicals used in such products can adversely affect his/her tender armpits. For that reason homemade natural deodorants made from sage, coriander and lavender oil can be very useful for your teenage or preteen child.

14. Use Hazel

Hazels have very good astringent properties. Therefore, it can be used to fight any sort of body odor. Soaking a cotton ball and dabbing it on your child’s armpits will help in the reduction of any sort of body odor.

15. Add Tomato Juice in Bath water

Believe it or not tomato juices also have the capacity to fight off any sort of bacteria or toxins causing bad odor in your child. If you add two cups of tomato juice in the bath tub and make your child soak in it for few minutes it will help him/her fight the body odor related problem.

Precautions: If none of the suggested hygiene related home remedies do not work out then it is advisable that you consult medical help. Always remember that there are certain misconceptions about body odor in children. Firstly we tend to think that sweat smells and smelly sweats cause body odors. Reality is that sweat has no smell. It is just salt and water. Smell comes only from bacteria. Also despite regular showering and washing of private parts body odor problem persists in kids. In such situations you must use the suggested home remedies. Commercially available deodorants are not good for your kids. They will cause adverse effects. Always try and use naturally made odor fighting solutions. Finally body odor is not always a direct result of the physical problems faced by a child. There are mental and emotional issues which evokes stress and odor amongst kids. Consult a proper doctor if the odor becomes incurable.

Normally having body odor is a sign that your child is growing up. For that reason at the same time you must teach him/her to practice personal hygiene. However, just maintaining hygiene is not always sufficient to kick the bad odors away. There are various home remedies suggested in this article which will certainly help you and your child to combat the stress and stigmas of having body odors.