What causes someone to smell like vinegar when they sweat? My little boy (2) has a very strong vinegar smell - to the point that I have to wash his bedclothes almost daily, because he sweats at night and his sheets smell. We keep him clean - it’s just his scent.
I know that certain diseases can cause specific odors. He has a doctor appointment next week (for an asthma work-up - he’s had symptoms since he was a few weeks old) and I’m going to ask the doctor about it. Is this an obvious symptom of something?
Or, is there something in his diet that might be causing it? Is there a food that’s known for making someone smell vinegary?
Short of bathing him every hour, I’m not sure how to fix this.
I agree that this isn’t normal and it will be something I speak to the doctor about next week (as I mentioned). I’ve found, though, that doctors tend to be dismissive of vague symptoms (“Huh, yeah, sounds weird. Give him more baths and see how that goes.”) I was sort of hoping there was something out there that one of you knew about that I could ask specifically about.
Cool…thank you. That gives me three specific things to ask about and we can go from there. If anyone else knows of others, I’d be interested in hearing them.
Another thing you might want to do is have your son skip his baths for a day or so before the doctor visit, and possibly even bring in a bundle of his vinegary-smelling pajamas or bedclothes so that the doctor can experience the odor directly.
No idea whether it’s the same thing, indeed I never knew what it actually was… A few years ago my feet got really sweaty and vinegary smelling. I puit it down to the hot weather and changed my socks more often. When it got to the point that I was changing my damned socks three times a day the penny dropped that this wasn’t actually normal. On a whim I tried soaking my feet in hot salty water and luckily it did the trick. IANAD but it may be worth a shot.
I don’t want to alarm you, but put a liver test on the list for the doctor. A co-worker with hepatitis often smelled like vinegar or ammonia, and sometimes like antifreeze. I don’t know if it was his breath or his sweat.
I like Verminary’s idea of taking some unwashed clothes or your son’s pillow along to the doctor’s office.
:eek:
Luckily (or maybe not), my husband can smell it, too.
I’m not too freaked out by this, because my son is otherwise (well, except for the respiratory stuff), very healthy. He eats normally, drinks normally, pees normally, and has lots of energy. He’s also been tested for cystic fibrosis and a host of other genetic stuff because of the respiratory problems (he was hospitalized three times as a baby, which led to major tests), so I’m sure it’s not something like that. He has had yeast infections before, so I think that’s probably a big possibility, although he doesn’t have any sort of rash or anything. I’m going to throw Harmonious Discord’s possibilities out to the doctor, though, and see if anything sticks.
Although, if anyone comes along and says, “Oh, yeah, a diet high in milk and peaches could cause that,” that would be very helpful.
I’m betting you’re smelling propionic acid, which is produced by propionibacteria, and smells a lot like acetic acid.
It’s common in adolescents, and not uncommon in some pre-adolescents & adults. It tends to reside in the sebaceous glands, which are in the armpits and groin.
This is one of the few cases where I recommend to my patients that they try an antibacterial soap for a time, such as betasept.
Could be a few staph species too, which produce butyric acid-related breakdown products that can smell vinegary. Betasept would work there too.
Just my two cents; I haven’t taken a history or examined your kid, so I am not recommending it for him.
Thanks for that, Qadgop. I’ll ask the doctor about using anti-bacterial soap on him, too. If he was a little older, I’d probably go and buy some tomorrow and give it a shot.
It is not a normal thing for our kids to smell like this and it started with my youngest in 4th grade a few years ago. I did LOTS of research and kept a diary on what she at and years later, I have found that it is when she eats processed or GMO foods (gentically modified). She had not had this problem for a long time and went to a party yesterday and had pepperoni pizza.
Their bodies are trying to rid of the toxins so they will smell really bad. The only way I have found to keep it from happening is to keep her from those kinds of foods. It is not because they are not clean or do not bathe often because my daughter did and I made sure of it.
I’m sure you must have taken your son to this appointment by now.
I woke up in the middle of the night one night, with a very sharp pain in my leg to find out when I went to the doctors I needed to go to the hospital.
I am 27 years old and the doctors at my age were shocked to see that I have Blood Clots in my leg, and both my lungs.
After taking the medication called Warfarin that thins my blood.
I bargain to sweat a lot and my sweat smelt like vinegar.
I am not 29 years old and every night there is nothing I can do to stop the smell from coming.
I am still doing research on this as no doctor has yet found a solution to prevent this.
Not saying your son has blood clots… But from my experience it has something to do with the blood flow.
I hope my experience may have helped, or opened a couple more doors for you, and your child.
My son is now 7 and the smell eventually went away. I honestly can’t remember what his doctor said back then, but I don’t think he was very concerned. He has pretty much outgrown his asthma symptoms, too!
