What age did your children start wearing deodorant?

Lovin' Disney

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I know, weird title, right? The reason I ask is that my DS7 is always telling me about his sweaty armpits and that he thinks he should wear deodorant. He is not smelly at all.

Is deodorant harmful to a child so young? I may humor him and buy him one of those travel size ones because I think once he tries it every day for awhile, the novelty will wear off. Do they make deodorant for teens? I really don't want my DS7 to smell like Old Spice. :rotfl2:

Thanks!!!
 
My daughter is almost 9. She is not a big girl but after a day of playing she smells.:rotfl2: When she was 7 she wanted to wear it so bad and I bought her some just for fun. She used it once or twice and that was enough for her. Now that she has to use it because she needs to I have to remind her all the time. I don't know about boys but they do make teen ones for girls.

It might just be a thing he wants to try to feel grown up. He might be like my daughter and use it for fun but probably get bored with it. You probably will have to remind him when he gets a little older and REALLY needs il. :rotfl::rotfl: Good Luck.

Our trip is in Aug so I'm sure I will have to remind her while we are there to use it. I have heard it is really hot around that time of year. :scared:
 
my DS is 7 - he gets so sweaty - i asked the DR if it was ok and he said fine - we made a big deal going to pick out one - we opened a bunch and smelled them - and he was excited to use it.
We picked out an anti-persprent and deoderant together - he uses it everyday and smells nice now.
it was liek a right of passage -
Jennifer
 
My DS10 was almost 10, I think the beginning of 4th grade. We went to Walmart and smelled them all. This was the one he chose: Tag - Spin It. I attached a link so you could see what it looks like, but we got it at walmart. It's about as close to a teen boy one as we could find. It does have a cool look and youthful smell. It did feel like a right of passage.
I agree, your son may use it periodically, but likely will not become a daliy user. We keep it in the bathroom drawer and DS10 uses it after his shower, every other day.

http://www.theessentials.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&itemID=1242
 

my DD started wearing it every day in first grade-they had an almost hour-long recess in elementary school and she SMELLED when she came home. she's going into sixth grade next month and i still have to remind her to wear it, LOL.
 
My son started using it at 9 when he started getting smelly. We started with an unscented, I think it was called Pure. Now, at 10, he gets the sporty boy scented kind. He has to be reminded daily or he will forget.
 
Due to all the hormones in our food/milk and various other environmental factors, children are maturing a lot quicker than they used to. It's not that unusual for 1st/2nd graders to have this need OR for 8 year olds little girls to be getting their periods :scared1:
 
Due to all the hormones in our food/milk and various other environmental factors, children are maturing a lot quicker than they used to. It's not that unusual for 1st/2nd graders to have this need OR for 8 year olds little girls to be getting their periods :scared1:

Please provide a link that supports these claims with scientific evidence.
 
Train him early, train him early!!!

DS13 was about 11 when he decided he needed it, as with pp kids that lasted about a month. Now that he really, really, really needs it, he never uses is :rolleyes:. Man does he get stinky too. We have to make him shower :scared1: .

He likes AXE because, of course, it's really cool and sophisticated. This is also a kid who lives to dress in abercrombie, AE, Hollister, etc. He even has cologne; abercrombie's phelps, of course :rotfl2: .

Now the only good news I've had on this front is that my co-workers DD and DS are the same and they are 16 and 17. So if you can get your 7 yo using deodorant now on a daily basis there's a lot of hope for him as a teenager. :woohoo:
 
THE FOURTH GRADE FUNK!!

It's different for every kid! My DD10 started to use deoderant at the begining of her fouth grade. It's all about hormones that's what opens the sweat glands and produces the odor.
 
:rotfl:

DS8 requested the same thing about a month ago - said his "pits" were really stinky and he needed some "man's deodorant"! It was really hard to keep a straight face. So I was brave, took a whiff, asked him if he was sure they were stinky, 'cause I didn't smell anything! I let him take a partially used one from DH, and I can tell when he uses it because of the scent, but it's only about once a week. If it makes him feel better and starts to get him in the habit, that's fine with me.
 
My son started in the 4th grade too! It was after soccer camp I realized he just didn't smell like a sweaty dirty boy, it was stronger than that. There are some deodorants that are geared toward teenagers so I just let him pick what he liked.
 
Please provide a link that supports these claims with scientific evidence.


I can provide anecdotal evidence, I volunteered in my son's 4th grade classroom and there were girls more developed than I or any of my friends were at that age! I also sub and the PE teachers told me they get asked questions about periods and such from kids way younger than they expected.

It's funny, if you want to know what is going on, ask the PE teachers. They seem to know everything!
 
Plain and simple, kids need it at whatever age they start getting body odor. Some kids start younger and some start older. My best friend had to start wearing at when she was 8. I didn't need it until I was almost 11.
 
My DD12 started wearing it when she was 10 and I still ask her everyday "did you put deodrant on?" When she first started wearing it she wore a teen scent (Teen Spirit I think) which we found at Wal-mart it comes in a few scents but, I think it's mainly for girls. Now, she wears secret and during basketball season she wears degree.
I completely agree with previous posters that said kids are maturing much earlier than when we were kids. My DD got her period when she was 11 , I was 13 1/2. I really wish she had been a bit older because she needed a little more time to mentally mature, she was not happy about getting it. We had the "birds and the bees" talk a LONG time ago and the period talk along with it but, I still felt she needed another year to be mentally mature enough. She was so p.o.ed when she got it , you would have thought the world was coming to an end.
 
Please provide a link that supports these claims with scientific evidence.

A study commissioned by the Breast Cancer Fund in San Francisco reveals more unsettling news about the fact that girls are reaching puberty earlier than their mothers did. The report, "The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls: What We Know, What We Need to Know," was compiled by biologist Sandra Steingraber.

Why should their parents be worried? The fact that earlier puberty increases risks for several types of estrogen-dependent cancers, such as breast and ovarian cancer, is worrisome, to be sure. "The data indicates that if you get your first period before age 12, your risk of breast cancer is 50 percent higher than if you get it at age 16," said Steingraber to reporters. "For every year we could delay a girl’s first menstrual period, we could prevent thousands of breast cancers."

Also troubling is the probability that chemicals in our everyday environment, such as plastics and regular household cleaners, are at least part of the cause of disruptions to our daughters’ developing hormonal systems, especially when looked at cumulatively.

....

The trend toward earlier puberty is definitely occurring, and seems to be an "ecological disorder," caused by a combination of different factors. Steingraber writes, in the overview of her report, "The evidence suggests that children’s hormonal systems are being altered by various stimuli, and that early puberty is the coincidental, non-adaptive outcome."

She is especially concerned with the regulation and public disclosure of various chemicals which are endocrine disruptors, and with ensuring that children today, regardless of gender, are given healthy choices in their diets and plenty of exercise to avoid the causative factor of obesity.

The report is the most extensive, thorough compilation of its kind of the different possible causative factors of early puberty in girls.

This is information from an article published in 2007.


_________________


Here's more:

U.S. girls are reaching puberty at younger ages than ever before. In the 1990s, breast development -- the first sign of puberty in girls -- at age 8 was considered an abnormal event that should be investigated by an endocrinologist.

However, by 1999, following a 1997 study that found almost half of African Americans and 15 percent of whites had begun breast development by age 8, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society suggested changing what is viewed as “normal.”

They suggested changing puberty at age 8 from abnormal to normal, and lowering the abnormal puberty age to 7 for white girls and 6 for African American girls.

But while some experts believe the shift is nothing to worry about, others, including parents, are alarmed.

Early puberty, which exposes girls to estrogen for more of their lives, is linked to breast cancer and other health risks, but scientists are at a loss of how to study the potential causes for early puberty, which include:

* Hormones in food
* Pesticides in produce
* Phthalates in plastics and cosmetics
* Obesity, which exposes girls to more of the acidic hormone estrogen
* Stress from living in a fatherless household
* Sexually suggestive TV shows

Conducting a study to test these factors is next to impossible because there are so many estrogen-like acidic chemicals in the environment that there are no control populations to balance out the study.

And while scientists grapple with how to figure out what’s causing girls to develop at younger and younger ages, parents are forced to have adult conversations with their children much sooner than expected.


Sources:

* Los Angeles Times January 21, 2008
* The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls August 2007


_______________


There have been no long term studies of BGH's effects on humans. The congressional General Accounting Office has warned of the potential human health hazards from the consumption of milk or flesh (about 40% of the beef used to make hamburgers come from "old" dairy cows) derived from BGH-treated cows.

Since 1994, every industrialized country in the world, except for the US, has banned the drug rBGH.
 
My baby well (DD6 but will be 7 in 8/09), kept telling me her under arms were smelling. I didnt have to get to close to know she was telling the truth, so my baby girl is wearing deodarant:sad:
 
My ds is 8 and will be starting it really soon. By the end of the day he smells pretty bad. I also didn't know if it was safe for boys this young, but since it apparently is, he may be getting some today.
 
My DD "needed" it this year...she's 6. She doesn't smell...she just wanted what other kids have (she has some older friends). I bought her this...

http://www.shop.jvdeodorant.com/main.sc

No chemicals, so no harm. She uses it daily and it's a good habit to start. We had a heck of a time with DSS when he was at the age where he DID need it...what a struggle.
 












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