If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ll know I am passionate about all things BO ☺
Having it, not having it, how to manage BO, why we have it in the first place – these are all facets of the broader personal care conversation we have throughout our lives.
What makes things more challenging is when we throw kids into the mix, our own kids that is. From the ages of 0-6 our kids are simply the cutest things ever, have pudgy hands and feet and fall asleep with us constantly. Then, around the age of 7 (or younger, or older) something interesting happens. Our kids become even more active than they were before (because of sports or activities, or simply even just because of highly engaging recess breaks at school), and when you arrive to that afterschool pickup, your nose takes a beating.
I’ve been there, I know how that first whiff of BO mixed with hallway shoes and locker “umph” hits you in the car. It’s still warm out in early September and so coupled with all of these intense smells is the overt sweating that is also coming from your young one.
Naturally, our first instinct is to reach for our deodorant and say, “you need to start using this NOW”. However, this feels remedial right? It feels like more of a punishment and feels very reactive, vs having a conversation that could feel either proactive or nurturing.
Read on for some great tips on how to have the conversation no matter which stage you’re at with your child, and more importantly how to help your young ones feel supported and confident as you all navigate the personal care space together as a family.
This is, in my opinion, the absolute best time to start the personal care and body odor conversation with your child. At what age? Right when they are about to enter kindergarten. Why? The answer here is quite simple actually. As parents we do not wait for a cavity to appear before we start helping our kids brush their teeth; going back to what we spoke about above, teeth hygiene is a proactive conversation. Hence, personal care and using deodorant should be no different. Introduce deodorant and the importance of cleaning our bodies and keeping ourselves clean at an early age and this way, when body odor starts to present you’ve already taken the steps to have the convo and your child will already be familiar with deodorant and how to use it effectively.
Not at all! I’ve got a winning approach for you that will work every time. It’s in all of us, that immediate knee jerk reaction to throw your own deodorant at your child the second you start to smell that body odor. My advice? Slow things down.
Take a step back and think, if I had BO, how would I want someone to tell me?
The absolute best approach here is to decouple the smell from the human. What do I mean here? Try this script with your child:
“I’ve noticed that sometimes when you come home from school or ‘activity’ there seems to be a smell that is attached to you. Let’s try out a youth deodorant that’s made for kids to see if it helps. We want to leave the smell behind so you can be the best kid you can be!”
The goal with this strategy is to help your child understand a few key lessons:
1️⃣ There is absolutely nothing wrong with them!
2️⃣ The body odor is a “thing” that can be neutralized and eliminated
3️⃣ It’s going to be you & your kid together fighting the body odor!
Drop us a comment if you try either of these approaches and let us know your thoughts!
x
-Farzana