K thaMy 8 Yr Old Son's Room Stinks to High Heaven!

Boys can be kinda stinky.
Sneakers stink.
If they sweat in bed at night, that has an aroma all of its own as well.
If you know it's him and not a dead rodent or any other miscellaneous, noxious odor... it might be a good idea to get him in the habit of showering at night, and tossing his laundry hamper into the garage along with shoes that he wears on a regular basis.
This sounds bad I know but it could also be ejaculate. Boys don't care where that stuff flies and lands.
Ventilate, and a spray bottle of febreze---* youve seen the annoying commercials :)

Not normal for an eight year old! My guess is that he's got something, possibly rotting old food in there, hiding away. Little boys are putrid! Or perhaps a mouse or rat or even a penny lizard has somehow died in there, or in the ceiling above. Even little dead animals can stink.

Could it be his shoes? Some boys have bad foot odor from sweaty feet and it can smell up a room in no time!

Is it possibly his mattress? If his BO has kicked in, it's possible that has seeped through the sheets and gotten into the mattress. I would also check any hidey holes for something that may have been snuck in there to eat and forgotten about. eg The closet, under the bed. When was the last time you cleaned out his dresser drawers? With my 16 year old SS, we have to make him go through and pull everything out at least once a year and wipe down the inside of the drawers, because he has been know to wear a shirt for a few hours outside sweating, and instead of putting it in the laundry, he just stuffs it in a drawer and forgets about it.

My SS's room is the same way and has been since he was 9. He just has this natural stink that we can't get rid of! Keeping his laundry done weekly helped (he does it himself so we stepped up enforcement of this).

Also, we eventually traced a lot of the smell to his mattress. Like, his stink had permeated it... ugh. I got one of those allergen covers with the plastic lining for it (the kind you totally zip up the mattress inside) and make him strip his bed and wash his sheets and blankets every week. That has helped. Make him take his daily shower before bed to help this issue.

We also use those odor-absorbing tub things (they look like a plastic container with a chunk of something waxy inside that sucks up the smell). They do help if you replace them monthly.

Then, I just keep his door shut. If it gets left open the stink seeps into the hallway. Good luck to you!!

sigh. it's such a shock when our sweet-smelling babies get big and stinky. sometimes we're lucky enough to have it hold off until the teenage years and puberty, but sometimes it begins early.
socks, shoes, and mattresses are usually the biggest culprits. socks can be washed and shoes can get inserts and powders, but mattresses are problematic. i suggest frequent sheet changes, with some time being aired out whenever possible and a good spray of febreze or lysol in a pinch. a sprinkle of odor absorbing powder on the mattress itself before the sheets go on can also help.
and your son is apparently old enough to need deodorant and probably some foot spray too.
welcome to the 'smells like a goat' years!
:) khairete
S.

move the bed and dressers and desks away from the walls and check behind / under them. we had this issue twice. onces with my son and once with my daughter. in daughters case it was a glass of milk that had tipped over and spoiled in the carpet. gross gross gross. sons room different oder. smelled like a soiled diaper. he was about 9 at the time. i found about 8 pair of underwear under his dresser shoved way back that he had not wiped good and had poop in them. gross gross gross again.

My 8 yo's feet/shoes smell AWFUL! It's bad enough to make a whole area smell. Now he has to spray his shoes with foot/shoe deodorant spray every time he takes them off, and the problem is solved. Maybe it's your son's shoes???

ETA: Oh, I hadn't thought about a mouse. We've had several die in the walls though the years. They do smell horrid.

This brings back many memories of my younger brother's room when we were growing up! I had to laugh out loud on this one :) Anyway, I was in charge of vacuuming the house and dusting and his room had the most god-awful smell to it. I actually told my parents that I was no longer going to go in his room because it stunk so bad. Turns out the little guy had cracked an egg on the carpeting and let it fester under his bed. When I finally found it under there, I also found his dream-catcher towel to which I teased him mercilessly forevermore. If you knew all that this little twerp put me through as his older sis, believe me, you would sympathize!!

Dirty laundry? Dirty kid? Those were the two biggest offenders with my sons.

Great responses to consider especially shoes, mattress and hamper. For shoes, do not hesitate to throw out all that he's been wearing if you need to. Not all funk can be eliminated and kids will wear the same shoes every day forever sometimes. Make him alternate pairs of shoes on different days and ensure that he changes socks -- twice, not once, each day if his feet are an issue.

Also I want to add: Empty out his closet. He may have shoved old socks, underwear etc. back in there at some point instead of in a laundry hamper. It happens when they "clean up the room" sometimes.

And when you do a big clean-out, I'd re-wash items that have been hanging in the closet. Even if they are clean, smell them -- they may have picked up the funky odor and need rewashing.

If the mattress is a source, you may need to just replace it rather than air it out. Mattresses collect and trap our dead skin cells and it just may never air out enough to lose the smell.

Possibly run a dehumidifier in the room if it seems damp. You may have issues with humidity that's too high and is worsening the smell.

Febreeze it all on top of all the other advice!

And a cup of white vinegar in the wash deodorizes my boys' things (I have three boys. Yes, they just naturally stink. And they think it's funny, too.)

I'll bet it's his mattress. One nice Saturday, get your husband to take it outside and let it air out. Vacuum it too. Wash the mattress pad. If you don't have a mattress pad, buy one. You could also get one of those zip all the way around bug-free covers to put on it (preferably one that washes) after you let it air out.

I'd get a comfortable and soft mattress pad to put over the bug-free cover, for your son's sake, if I were you. And wash it at least once a month.

Febreze also helps with the smell. Does he have dirty socks stuffed under the bed?

Wait til he's a teen. I swear... ugh!

Dawn

Check the shoes! For REALS! My son has a pair of skeletoes that I insist on being put outside when he isn't wearing them. then when he does, if he doesn't wash his feet, the sheets smell, the carpet . . .you get the gist. :) If not the shoes, try taking out the mattress into the sunlight for a day and wiping down all the bed frame with vinegar and water.
use some kind of carpet cleaner that deodorizes (if you have carpet - we have hardwood and rugs, so we take them out and just hang them for a day).
Best of luck - I agree with the other moms - boys can be stinky!

This will sound bizarre... but does it smell like urine at all? Old urine?
I have heard of boys waking in the night needing to go to the bathroom, and using their closet instead. Really, I have a friend who has stories. Usually with younger kids, but.... any chance he sleep walks? Who knows what he is doing if he does..

And ditto the move the furniture and dig to the back of his closet. There is SOMETHING that needs thrown out and cleaned out. You just haven't found it yet. An old wet towel/washcloth or two somewhere even...
Could there be mold/mildew in his window or leaks anywhere?

ETA: I have an almost 14 yr old. I know that as they mature they start getting stinkier (no sweet smelling boys anymore at my house!)... but what you sound like you are describing is NOT just typical BO or hormonal changes, or sweating in the sheets.
IF it is his shoes, then vinegar soaks for his feet will help with the bacteria causing the smell.
The ONLY time my son's has ever had one of the rank smells you are describing (pungent, not just a general funky smell) was when there was something there. A wet towel. A wet bathing suit in the bottom of the hamper for a week. Urine in undies at the bottom of the hamper. When he was small-- urine in his toybox (yeah... not undies IN the toybox, just urine peed right into it. Over time it crystalizes... nice, huh?).
There is a specific source somewhere. You just have to find it. I'd check his dresser drawers for dirty things that may have been stuffed back in there when he was "cleaning" as well....
Good luck.

ETAA: Oh... and my DAUGHTER's room had a rank smell once last year. Turns out her TAG class had dressed up potatoes (cloth clothes and yarn hair even), named them, written about them and then let the students bring them home. Her potato was in a back corner of her dresser and was ROTTING. YUCK!

You need to track it down what ever it is.
It could be his mattress, or hidden food gone bad, or shoes.
Or it could be a dead mouse in a wall, or a roof or water leak that's causing molding to happen in walls / floor.
If a closet is packed really tight with things sometimes an uninsulated wall (if it's on an outside wall) will condense out moisture from the air and the wall and anything touching it will mold.
Not much you can due about a dead mouse except to wait for it to go away in a few weeks.
But other things can be washed, aired out, dried out and that should solve it.
I'd have a hard time sending my son to sleep in a room that reeks.
Maybe he can sleep somewhere else till you've got what ever it is under control.

it's called puberty!!! and yes it has a smell. my son is 10 and his room is awful smelling. i sell scentsy so i have a warming in his room for the smell!!! might be something to look into!!!

does he sweat a lot when he sleeps? maybe the sheets and pillows? i dunno, this happens with my son,

Its his shoes probably. My 12 yo daughters is the same, but not my 9 yo sons...yet...lol! Wash his sneakers all the time, good luck!

Is your crawl space that goes under your house open outside. Could be a possum or racoon has crawled up under there and died. Check between the mattresses too. I can't imagine it being in his room and you can't locate it!

Whats that smell, ewww boy smell. yep got one. has to be his pherome or something, he does not have stinking feet or underarms. Just rank.

Lots of great responses. I've got more suggestions to check out, since I have a boy too. Mine is a clean freak when it comes to hygene, so I know he himself doesn't smell. It's just his room.
1. Mold/Mildew - We've had a problem with a really wet year both last year and this year so far. Our mold problem is going through the roof. We've never had this much problems with mold, but I guess it's a combination of a poorly insulated house and wet weather. Hubby has been cleaning it up with bleach, but it just seems like this type of mold comes back with a vengence. Our son's room has many hidden places for mold to hide like behind dressers, wardrobes, and book cases. I find that when I start smelling that odd odor, the best thing to do is to move everything away from the walls and clean them up with a nice smelling disinfectant.
2. Clay - My son's wonderful clay project from school never dried out and smells to high heaven.
3. Heavy milk drinker - My son isn't one, but some of his friends are and boy do they smell.

Are you positive that he hasn't had an accident and put the clothes in his hamper out of embarrasment? Or maybe peed in the bed and just remade the bed because he didn't want you to know? I would check the room for hidden things like that too. Never know! Sometimes boys just smell......................

And just to add.....boys sometimes pee in weird places too, so check for that!