Kids With Smelly Clothing

[hgonzalez]

Does anyone else have kids in their care whose clothing smells horrible?

I have two families in which this is driving me nuts. One family brings a cloth bag with belongings in it and also the kids jackets hang in my entryway. They all stink like old cigarette smoke and urine and sometimes like rancid fried food.
I literally gag when I walk by them or have to handle their jackets.

The other one brings and older infant in clothes that smell like sour milk or diarrhea. I couldn't handle it one day this week and changed his clothes, washed the stinky ones and put them back on him when they were done drying. I have also washed his outerwear, as it has the same smell. They also bring a bottle with him each morning that has curdled formula around the rim and nipple.

I don't have time to wash these kiddos' jackets all the time, but cannot stand the smell in my house. Does anyone else have issues with this kind of things, and what do you do? I don't want to insult the families, but YUCK!

[craftymissbeth]

I have a dck who smells strange... I can't put my finger on it. Her hair and clothes smell like a combination of syrup and urine.

Another ones clothes smell like ammonia. It smells like she washes the clothes in it, if that's even a thing people do. This child made me gag so badly one day I threw up

Child number one is rarely bathed (and I recently allowed her to get yogurt in her hair so I would feel less guilty about bathing her here) and child number two is very clean but her clothes are smelly.

I'm afraid to say anything to the parents

[preschoolteacher]

There are definitely people who just smell WEIRD, you know?

In high school, I was a summer nanny for one family whose house smelled so horrible and their kid carried it around on his clothes. They weren't culturally different from me (sometimes with different foods, perfumes, etc., people from different cultures from you can just smell different to you). Their house was also very clean. They had no pets. The kid was out of diapers. They didn't eat any drastically different food. They even lived in the same subdivision I lived in--and at that time, the subdivision was only like 2 years old, so our houses were built at the same time and nearly identical, so it couldn't really be a house smell, either.

I remember one day opening up their cupboards in their kitchen and spending like 30 minutes looking for the smell. It was like a mixture of hamster cage and stale, wet clothing. Ugh....

[craftymissbeth]

Good point PP. I once nannied for a family that smelled to me like rotten pineapples. There wasn't any certain reason for it... that's just how they smelled I guess.

[se7en]

My niece smells horrible all day if she has anything w syrup in the morning. She is clean and bathed , but the syrup smell st a us with her. Her parents realize it and limit pancakes etc to weekends, when she can bathe after breakfast. It's just something with her body and certain food.

[Brooksie]

I have one dcb whos clothes always smell like patchouli and smoke, but only when he comes from his grandma/dads house. Its a cultural thing. Apparently its actually a baby wash that has that distinct smell. They special order it from the country they're from. DCM hates it. Says he smells like an old man.

[JoseyJo]

We have one who used to always smell like smoke. Then he didn't, so maybe dcm stopped smoking?? happyface

[WImom]

I had a DCB that's jacket and backpack always smelled like smoke. It was mainly in the colder months so I assumed someone smoked by the door where the jackets are instead of going all the way outside.

As soon as mom was gone I'd move it out of the room and Fabreeze it then return it before we went outside so the kid didn't notice.

[Maria2013]

could you spray the clothes with lysol or fabreeze? *spelling*

[nanglgrl]

The ammonia smell scares we a lot. Isn't that what people smell like that are in houses that manufacture meth? I wouldn't put meth use past anyone. My fathers heart surgeon is currently serving a life sentence for it.

[countrymom]

I have no problem haning stinky clothes like coats and back packs outside. Also, I have had kids who smell like mildew. Mom would let wet clothes sit in either the washer or dryer for days and then put it on the kids. No wonder the kids were always sick--mildew is like mold.

[Laurel]

Does anyone else have kids in their care whose clothing smells horrible?

I have two families in which this is driving me nuts. One family brings a cloth bag with belongings in it and also the kids jackets hang in my entryway. They all stink like old cigarette smoke and urine and sometimes like rancid fried food.
I literally gag when I walk by them or have to handle their jackets.

The other one brings and older infant in clothes that smell like sour milk or diarrhea. I couldn't handle it one day this week and changed his clothes, washed the stinky ones and put them back on him when they were done drying. I have also washed his outerwear, as it has the same smell. They also bring a bottle with him each morning that has curdled formula around the rim and nipple.

I don't have time to wash these kiddos' jackets all the time, but cannot stand the smell in my house. Does anyone else have issues with this kind of things, and what do you do? I don't want to insult the families, but YUCK!

Could you ask them if they could bring a spare jacket to keep at your house? If not, I personally would go to the thrift store or pick up one on sale to keep for them at my house so I could wash it.

In the case of the cloth bag maybe just gently tell them that it seems to have absorbed odors since it is cloth and ask if they could bring another one.

For the bottle, they must know if it happens every day. I would probably say "Did you notice that this bottle didn't get clean around the rim?" They will probably act shocked and make some excuse and change it. If not, I would just wash it every day before using it. If they usually send it full and you don't want to supply the milk/formula I would just point it out and ask them to be sure it is clean every day. Big smile!

I wonder if smokers just get so used to the smell that they don't realize others find the smell gross. Long ago my son and his girlfriend lived with us and both smoked. We don't smoke. I always wondered why his girlfriend smelled strongly of perfume because I don't like perfume smells either. Then I realized it was to cover up the smoke smell and then it wasn't so bad. They smoked outside only and washed their clothes and took showers a lot so it wasn't that big of problem. Sure was glad when they moved out though.

Laurel

[Lavender]

Sometimes I have one of my babies come in smelling terribly of clothes that sat too long in the washer. It makes it so difficult for me to snuggle them (although of course I do). That smell bothers me so much that I am very careful to not let it happen in my home. I only wash loads that I have time to change over right away and I always leave my washer door open to dry out when I'm done. There used to be a baby who came in reaking of smoke. Her parents had even won a trip to the Marlboro ranch. She was always coughing and her cough for the first 1/2 hour would smell like she was coughing cigarette smoke at me. I don't understand how parents can do that to their children. :-(

[Kaddidle Care]

I have heard that if a place has bedbugs it smells like syrup and I noticed that a few of you are detecting that smell.

I think that if you are washing everything and they still come in smelly the next day that I would either terminate (find a reason) or use plastic bags on the coats. I feel bad for the kids but this odor is going to reflect on your home/business and other people are going to be turned off because of it.

Some people have animals that leave everything smelly and some just don't know how to clean and I would suspect neglect.