The Imperfect Community

[Jessica]

My older son, 9 years old, told me that his armpits were sweating up a storm during chorus and during basketball. I went and sniffed (ewwww, what a mother will do...) one of his t-shirts and it smelled a-mighty-ripe.

Is 9 years old, old enough to wear deoderant? Has anybody heard of kids starting that early?

[julymom]

Well, if he needs it, he needs it. I don't remember how old I was, around 11 or 12 maybe, but boys sweat a lot, so maybe younger for a boy. And ewwww on the sniffing his shirt. Moms do all kinds of gross things, don't they? At least you didn't grab his arm and lift it for a sniff.

[mammaX3_MOD]

I remember back in school when they started talking about periods and health and hygene (5th-6th grade), and I remember the health teacher saying that kids/young teens shouldn't wear anti-perspirant because their body needs to sweat, but that it was OK for them to use liquid roll-on/spray deodorant to mask odor.
And actually, the school my 1st grader goes to, had "one stick of deodorant" on the "supplies to buy" list for the 5th graders at the beginning of the year. I imagine they'll be teaching about health and hygene to them this year.

Ditto on the sniffing thing. Nothing says humble like catching a whiff of some part of your kid's body on purpose!

[Petulant Pixie]

Alex started wearing deoderant in about 5th grade. This year (7th grade) we upgraded to anti-perspirant.

[Phaedra]

*shrugs* Some kids sweat more than others, and for some very unlucky ones, their sweat smells "ripe" sooner.

My husband's family all have overripe sweat glands, and were cross-country runners. I think he started wearing deoderant in third grade. Good luck.