[MMC66]

I'm so glad you shared that - I can't imagine going through life another minute without that information

Weird this thread came up today because a friend at work has a five year old with BO - I looked at her like she had three heads but she said she talked to his doctor and the doctor said it is more common in AA kids - not necessarily hormone realted although always good to check it out. Anyway, she uses deoderant and it seems to help. Who knew

Martha

[sugarbabysmommy]

Originally Posted by FH-LisaCA

Even water contains traces of hormones from the urine of women on birth control pills I hear-ick.

Run off, waste from manufacturing plants, and water released from water treatment plants- all wonderful stuff! Just imagine all the drugs flushed down toilets everyday, unused antibiotics, birthcontrol etc, headed to the treatment plant where they will not be removed by the treatment process (since they aren't bacterial matter so to speak). So the fish caught in these release waters (meaning any near coast or bay) are at best questionable food sources.

Thanks for mentioning plastics, especially microwaving in plastic. I never microwave in plastic, or use seran wrap, there is nothing stable about heated plastic.

Wish could help with the BO question. I have BO now, never did my entire life, ever, and now I have it. And my diet is mostly organic and I eat very little red meat. This diet predated my BO explosion by many years. I also have acne now- middle aged hormones, fabulous.

[megsveils]

My daughter is 4 and is starting to have BO too!!
Meg

[LisaCA]

my feeling is that while this looks "racial", it's actually environmental. AAs tend to live in areas with more chemical exposure, closer to agriculture in some areas like the south, etc. add all that up with all those other lovely things and you get a biological cocktail that is problematic at best. btw, the rates for whites are increasing as well, so puberty is happening earlier across the board.

it's enough to be totally depressing. This is where a little info leads to a doc visit for antidepressants (or you can just drink the water for traces from other folks' drug use-sorry martha, threw that in just for you ). What goes in must come out (okay, I'll stop ).

[whoownsthis]

I'm with you, Lisa, re: environmental and/or nutritional triggers. My gals are from a very crowded city on the eastern coast with high unemployment and lots of pollution. We picked them up at the end of June on a 100 degree day, and the smell of pavement (tar) and rotting garbage was just awful! (When we met their teachers, one of them thanked us for "getting them out of this city!") Although I think that had more to do with the unemployment, school dropout rates, and overall hopelessness.

Thankfully our gals are happy little munchins, albeit a tad stinky (at least the oldest).

I'd be curious to know if Sleeplvr grew up in an agricultural area or near factories or nuclear plants? Having all of your friends begin wearing deodorant at 7 or 8 seems a bit young. Then again, I'm just going by my own experience, but I don't think I started taking showers willingly until 11 or 12. I remember fighting it the summer I turned 11 (when my mom first told me that I NEEDED a shower ), so I probably had to start wearing deodorant around the same time. Then again, I was a "late bloomer," so what do I know?!

[Lexie]

I don't buy the racial tie. My Dh and his whole family (CA) would have a BO issue if they did not bathe all the time. They are big people ( tall and large frame) sweat a lot and they are smelly when they do. My family (AA) don't sweat a lot and we don't smell either. We are much smaller framed people ( not sure if that is a reason or not). Our DS is 4 years old....and he is just like his dad. He takes a bath twice a day ( like the rest of us)and if he didn't he would be smelly from playing outdoors and sweating a lot. I even put some lemongrass cream on his feet to keep his shoes from getting smelly. Constant washing of both feet and shoes is not enough!!!!

I would not be surprised if diet had something to do with it, but DH and I have the same diet. DS does not like red meat so he rarely if ever eats it.

My advice on the subject is to take more baths!!!! Then again for me I am used too taking two baths ( or two showers) a day for my entire life. It was just the custom in my family.

[LisaCA]

I think folks (meaning scientists etc) need to dig deeper than the surface. it's easy to see this difference and make the assumption that it's racial. Of course it depends on how they defined racial groups, and a number of other factors. Hopefully folks are looking into this across the board rise in early puberty and asking what we can do to stem the tide. I can't imagine that early puberty is good for anyone.

back in my childhood (the 1960s and 1970s) there was always one child in class who developed early. In 4th grade we had one child had breasts. The rest of us were quite slow to develop. I know my mom bought be a training bra in 6th grade. we both giggled and I put it in my drawer for "when I needed it", which was over a year later, lol. only one girl wore a bra in my 6th grade class. Fast forward to the 1990s and 2000s and I'm visiting elementary schools, stopping in 4th and 5th grade classes. I ask the teachers "what the @#!!, these kids look like 8th graders!". They all comment that kids are developing earlier these days. these girls were wearing real bras with cups, not the little stretchy things. quite a shock. I used to think it was all the hormones in meat and dairy products, but I'm thinking it's a much more complex cocktail of environmental things, including foods. Not sure what can be done to stop it, but we're dancing around trying to do so. we'll see when dd's older...

[whoownsthis]

And add to that the wearing of makeup and skimpy clothing in elementary school. Yikes! Our girls' school has a "no nylons or makeup" rule for girls (we have a dress code), and yet I saw two fourth grade girls last week with fake nails!

[Sleeplvr]

Originally Posted by whoownsthis

I'd be curious to know if Sleeplvr grew up in an agricultural area or near factories or nuclear plants? Having all of your friends begin wearing deodorant at 7 or 8 seems a bit young. Then again, I'm just going by my own experience, but I don't think I started taking showers willingly until 11 or 12. I remember fighting it the summer I turned 11 (when my mom first told me that I NEEDED a shower ), so I probably had to start wearing deodorant around the same time. Then again, I was a "late bloomer," so what do I know?!

I'm not talking about the kids that I grew up with but the ones that I know now. I was out of the country when I was 7 or 8 and when I came back we lived strictly in southern states. My friends that have kids that age now are talking about them using deordorant. My nephew is one of them. I'm convinced that the climate effects how early you develop too.

I live in Georgia , you can't get more agricultural than that. Plus there are a couple of nuclear plants near my hometown. The town where one plant is located has an unusually high number of AA albinos. DH used to work there on a regular basis and believed the plant caused it. I worked at the other plant that was in South Carolina for a number a years and there was a high incidence of childhood cancers and two headed toads there. They were the largest employer for the area so no one was going complain about the long term effects.

I think diet plays a big factor in BO. The diet of AA people in the south is horrible. There are many traditional things in the southern diet that I refuse to eat. I limit dairy because I'm lactose intolerant. I don't really eat a majority of soul food because I just can't get past the smell or how it was prepared. Turnip greens and collard greens... Yuck! Just about everyone I know who eats those types of food have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. DH is slim and comes from a family of very slim people and high blood pressure and cholesterol runs in his family. DH is just now figuring out why so many of his family have died from heart attacks. If they had been diagnosed, took the proper medication and changed their diet, some of them would still be here. I don't want to get on the subject of the ones who are on medication but have not changed their diets.

If studies are done, they will probably discover that generations of bad diets will create certain conditions in families. Because of generational poverty, southern people have horrible diets. The cheapest food is usually not the healthiest. One day they are going to realize that everything doesn't need to be fried or dripping in butter. I know it tastes good but you have to think about your health.

When I was growing up my mother's family typically ate baked chicken, fish and vegetables. They did not eat red meat. All the fried foods were saved for special occasions once or twice a year. I don't ever remember anyone having BO in the family and I think it was mainly because of diet.

[AeroBeachBaby18]

My little sister who is Seven already has problems with BO and we use deoderant/anit perspirant because it's sometimes that bad. My other sister who is 13 has extremely strong BO to where it smells like a skunk odor almost and she is AA and my other sister is biracial. I started sweating really bad in middle school and I was soooo self concious of it and we had tried tons of deoderant brands and even perscription strength deoderant and I would sweat to were it would leave stainds all the way down my shirt almost and it was a big social hinder on me and I don't think seven is too young for deoderant I mean I would rather have my sister use deoderant than have her friends tell her that she stinks or have it be a social problem like it was for me. It all depends on the persons's hormones like I had a slight hormonla imbalance, but luckily as I've gotten older my sweat glands seem to be calming and I don't sweat like I used to.

[everandaday]

Originally Posted by FH-LisaCA

my feeling is that while this looks "racial", it's actually environmental. AAs tend to live in areas with more chemical exposure, closer to agriculture in some areas like the south, etc. add all that up with all those other lovely things and you get a biological cocktail that is problematic at best. btw, the rates for whites are increasing as well, so puberty is happening earlier across the board.

it's enough to be totally depressing. This is where a little info leads to a doc visit for antidepressants (or you can just drink the water for traces from other folks' drug use-sorry martha, threw that in just for you ). What goes in must come out (okay, I'll stop ).

I think you're right about that. My DH is not AA but he is black (so that's racially the same thing) and he has practically no BO at all. He grew up in the country in a non-industrialized country, and was a really late bloomer, and eats fairly healthy. As for soy causing BO I think that's doubtful, because I am a vegan so I eat a lot of soy products and I have not noticed my BO getting worse since I became vegan, actually now that I think about it I haven't noticed it at all so it probably is less. I don't know if it affects children differently though.

Definitely my advice for the thread starter is to just ask the kids' pediatrician what they think.

[hotspice58]

Time for deodorant. My 7 yo (I've had him 1 1/2 years), sweats alot. I noticed an odor near his room and thought it was the shoes and/or sneakers. He went to summer school and his teacher called me and said in so many words, that he's developing BO. He puts deodorant on every day and he's ok now.

[whoownsthis]

I ended up buying some "natural" deodorant in the organic section of our grocery store. It has a minty scent and contains no aluminum-something, but it does contain "propylene glycol." I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't sound good. It's probably what gives stick deodorant its stickiness.

I don't have her wear it everyday, just when she wears sweaters to school or I know she's going to be playing outdoors alot in her heavy winter coat. I haven't noticed the BO as much (even when she's not wearing the deodorant), so maybe it's just bacteria when she goes more than two days without a bath. ???

[BrandyHagz]

Here is more info on "Propylene Glycol" and it's uses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_glycol

[whoownsthis]

Eek, that doesn't sound good (the propylene glycol description).

OK, so my quest continues. I have found all kinds of natural products online that contain no aluminum, propylene glycol or triclosan: IndiuMagic (but I looked up Indium, the main ingredient, and it appears to be used as a metal alloy!); Alba Clear Enzyme in Lavendar or Mandarin Spice (or Aloe, scent-free...not sure what ingredients is has); and "Thai" salt crystal rock (in a push up plastic case so you don't have to hold it, you just wet it and roll it under your arm--no scent, supposedly dries quickly).

After looking at the ingredients of my own "Secret" deodorant and seeing the warning that anyone with kidney ailments shouldn't use it (yikes!), I've decided to "go natural," too. I just need to find something that works and will last long enough to be worth its price.

Does anyone have any experience with these?