Bad body odour for kids

There's cases on kids(one of them is just 5 yrs old girl) to have body odour and parents are worrying about it. Here's some information/advice given by some doctors. Hope this helps.

It is certainly a little unusual for kids to have a noticeable body odour problem. At such young age, the glands within the skin, which produce the secretions that are then broken down by bacteria to cause the odour, have not yet significantly been stimulated by secondary sex hormones.

Changes at puberty, however, which include hair growth under the arms and the increased activity of secretary glands within the skin, do bring about a stronger odour. The kid may be undergoing a precocious puberty but there are other explanations too.There is for example one rare condition commonly known as fish odour syndrome where the person concerned secretes a particular chemical known as methylmercaptopurine, which results from the relative deficiency of the enzyme necessary in the body to break down certain ingredients of normal foodstuffs. Without these enzymes this chemical accumulates in the body only to be excreted through the glands in the skin producing this noticeable odour.

The good news is that avoiding certain food can solve the problem. Another possible explanation is that certain synthetic materials in clothing can react with sweat and cause an odour in their own right.

Furthermore, some people, including children, are simply born with more sweat glands in a certain area than others and they need to take extra precaution in masking the resulting odour.There is a treatment called Anhydrol forte, which contains aluminium chloride in a roll-on bottle that reduces sweating in the armpits, hands and feet when applied at night and washed off in the morning.

Advice would be to try thoroughly washing her clothes in hot water first to eliminate any residual smell, then using Anhydrol forte and if this fails, ask your family doctor about arranging a referral to a dietician in order to be able to avoid the foodstuffs responsible - if fish odour syndrome is the cause.