try this website even call them, they are so helpful!
https://odorxit.com/

Yeah, but sometimes once a smell is gone it's still is in your nose and mind.

I'd throw that mattress out!!!

Lucidos, that is a great idea about getting a zipper cover and sandwiching sachets on both the top and underneath side.

Checked with four local pet stores and none had activated charcoal powder, I'm trying to find it online. I'm a bit confused when looking at it on amazon. I have found pellets, sachets, and food grade powder, but not just a bag of it like you had pictured. If you have any links to an online bag I could purchase I would be so appreciative. Maybe I am just not searching well.

@Kendrah, you can just buy plain untreated charcoal, the kind you would use in a grill. Nothing like charbroil, that has chemicals. Cowboy charcoal would work.
http://www.cowboycharcoal.com/products/cowboy-hardwood-lump

Lucidos, It is so helpful too to read about the procedures you use when kids enter the
house. We are really new to this. This kiddos told us stories about
roaches, bedbugs, and rodents in his family's home. I am so grateful
they did not migrate here. I recently went to visit his grandma and while
standing in her kitchen I saw about ten roaches just crawling on the
walls. Here eye site is extremely poor and I doubt she even noticed
they were there. It is so sad the environmental conditions that many
children grow up in. The youth living with us also had asthma. One of
the leading culprits of it is cockroach feces. He has stories about waking up in bed with them crawling on his legs. I imagine it is extremely hard to control when you live in a large apartment building or row house and they can just go between the walls.

Hi Kendrah,

My stepdaughter once vomitted in our SUV on a long family trip to Utah. It was during the winter months, so although we pulled off the road and cleaned and deodorized as best we could, the heating running constantly was really baking that odor in.

Once the SUV stunk from that, my then-husband thought "well now I can smoke my cigars in there too"! Gross!

Eventually, I got rid of the smell (and him too)! I used the Bad Air Sponge, you can get it on Amazon or Bed, Bath and Beyond websites.

Bad Air Sponge

I've used it to keep away kitty litter box odors too and it works great! I swear by this product :) Good luck!

Please let us know what solution finally works....

Also change the air filters on your furnace. The odor ban product does work and I'm asthmatic and cannot tolerate any scent products at all. I can't even go within 100 feet of a department store perfume counter. Can't do essential oils either. One thing that will hold in odor are pillows and towels. If the room has a bathroom, be sure to put the odor ban down the drains and in the toilet.

Lisa, Had never heard of Bad Air Sponge. Just looked up the reviews on Amazon. Others rave as much as you do. I'm heading to Bed Bath and Beyond this afternoon to pick some up. Will also pick up a zippered mattress protector too in hopes I can do Lucidos charcoal sandwich suggestion. Congrats on ridding your SUV or odor and on the heave ho to the husband too.

Shirlpp, I hear you about throwing that mattress out. I will see if I can get the smell out first. It was an expensive BeautyRest from Macy's. Great quality. Best mattress in our house. To your point about an association, I bought an orchid at Trader Joe's yesterday and put it on the window sill in that room. It is the only thing in the room now and so nice to have something beautiful to look at and associate the space with.

All pet stores should have it sometimes it comes in wax milk carton type container. Oh and sometimes it has different names like Activated Carbon or Active Carbon. The "Active or Activated is charcoal like from the grill but infused with oxygen to make it many times more porous. It's what the Bad Air Sponge or Damp Rid are made of plus a fragrance. https://www.petsolutions.com/C/Aquarium-Carbon-Resin-Filter-Media/I/Marineland-Black-Diamond-Carbon.aspx

Ew!

Called all over and couldn't find any form of charcoal at pet stores, small indy ones or the big box. Here is my three pronged approach of the moment:

1. Thanks to Lisa, I got the Bad Odor Sponge. It has an unpleasant smell to it but I closed the door and stuffed a towel underneath so I cannot smell the fragrance in the rest of the house.

2. Thanks to Bellburgmaggie, I got OdoBan spray and sprayed the hell out of the mattress and box spring, which are currently on our roof deck.

3. Thanks to typeandrun and Lucido, I got charcoal bricks and am going to pulverize them with a hammer to make it more granular and dust like and put them in little sachets sandwiched between the mattress and new zipper cover I just bought. The zipper cover has a horrible vinyl smell to it so I am a bit hesitant to use this method.

10% chance of rain tonight then not again until Monday. I'm keeping the mattress and box spring outside as long as possible.

LOL! Did I get a "like" on ridding myself of the ex :) I have seriously upgraded since then!

Kendrah, good luck. I think the scent of the sponge will quickly fade...

Direct sunlight outdoors even if it's cool..The smell will go..patience my dear. Just when it's all gone they will call you with siblings :)

Wow, what cutie pies! I am being patient. If this smell were the hardest thing I had to deal with in being a foster parent, I would do the happy dance.

An update on the odor - Bad Air Sponge stunk way too much. Got rid of it after less than 24 hours. Used OdoBan to try to see if it would get rid of the Bad Air Sponge stink, but it just replaced it with a very day care center smell. Crushed up two plate fulls of charcoal bricks and placed them in the room with the door closed and the window open. Left the house today with the heat off and all the second floor windows open to try to get rid of the bad air sponge and day care smell - yep it is in the 30s! The challenge continues. At least it was a change of pace to have two different disgusting smells in the room that were not his.

You can get charcoal in the aquarium section of the pet shop. It comes sandwiched between filter medium and won't be messy...

Having just dealt with the odor of a dead something in the walls...I can attest to that being the worst smell ever in one room. So it's a possibility.

The problem with the charcoal bricks is they are not activated...infused with Oxygen so I don't think they will do the trick. And yes, those 2 cuties spent the holiday with us and returned home and now we have 2 boys - 4 and 22 months both with major behavior and medical issues. They are also too cute for words though.

As a note I am sure you are dealing with a musky odor and they are the most difficult to purge. If your search for the activated charcoal fails you can try sachets of baking soda but you will need about 5/10 times more.

The more you wet a musky smell the worse it gets. Febreeze the room and you could gag for weeks.

Seriously, Lysol is what works. If you can't tolerate it, have someone else wipe everything down. Leave the window open and exhaust the air out with a fan. Seal around the closed door with blue tape.

I used a bowl of cowboy charcoal to remove dog vomit smell in car. Worked for me!

is this smell gone yet?!

This post is going back a few years, but if you have a family member who reeks as if something died inside him/her have them checked out or change the diet.

oh Mike, aren't you a sensitive sally. It assumes boys smell? They do, if they don't shower frequently. Raging hormones, body hair, and lack of hygiene (compared to girls), mean that boys often smell more so than girls. Walk into a locker room after P.E. class. Want to bet on which locker room smells worse, boys or girls?

judgmental and discriminatory? Oh brother. It's just biology. get over it.

Really, my sons room smelled way worse than my daughters. I stink way worse than my wife. Both my wife and daughter would agree...

ha, ha,.....and if you need to wash more than twice a day DO IT!

Jan, I couldn't agree with you more. Reading some of this posts you would think these people live in a 3d world country.

I have 2 kids (older now) and when they were younger, they all played sports, etc after the game the clothes go right in the washer and they shoot straight for the shower. They knew better that if their room would reek, my wife would be on top of them like a bad dream, I'm not even mentioning what I would do to them, so they were always good when it came to that.

Parents should set Personal Hygiene rules the minute kids take his first step, I had them and I set the same rules for my kids because that will be part of their life.

Even in business, its important when you work with people... if someone likes to live the "natural body odor style" in their own stench do it in your own house, but if you work with people you should respect others and show some consideration and the least someone can do is shower before they go to work or out.

I wouldn't let anyone who reeks come into my house to do any work same as I wouldn't allow any of that on my jobs (thank god never had to tell any of my subs off or kick them off my job).

One time I had a washer and dryer delivered and they were suppose to set it up and one of the delivery guys reeked, I told the driver to unpack and leave everything outside because your helper stinks and I did it with my son.

I don't put up with this and I'm very frank about it when it comes to this things and tell it to someones face... because I just don't care and wont tolerate that and I don't care who it is and where it is.

When I was in Jr. high and high school it was mandatory to shower after gym and sport practice/ games, the school provided towels. Today, no towels and no showers. After football practice or a game no shower? So your kid gets home at 7pm eats, homework, falls asleep. You can't ride them about everything. My jr high gym coach would sit by the door and your hair had to be wet to get out the door after gym...So these boys go to gym class, if they still have it , sweat, no shower and then go back to class? It's a lot more than having a box of tide.

Jan, you are not an expert on everything. I played Division 1 football, which means years of work in the gym , on the field, being around men in close quarters, yea pretty stinking. Shocking isnt it!!!!! btw close, but not that close!!!!!!

This is an old post, but perhaps the stink lives on so I’ll chime in. I am a mom to 2 boys-14 and 12. The 12 year old smells peachy, the 14 year old does not. I am a very clean housekeeper, and everyone in the house showers daily-the 14 year old often showers twice. He flosses daily, etc, etc. We are healthy eaters, eating very little processed foods. Sometimes teenage boys smell odd. I’m convinced it has to be the hormones. When my son goes to camp each summer I rip his room apart cleaning it and airing it out. I’ve used all the products and tricks. Window is always open when weather allows. I run an air purifier in his room when he’s not in it. The room was also painted not long ago. I have been accused of having a nose like a bloodhound, but when I go sniffing around the room I can’t pinpoint the source. My husband doesn’t notice it, my mother doesn’t notice it. But it’s there, hanging in the air. It is something I have decided I will miss when he moves out. In the meantime I do my best to manage it and not make him feel bad about it. Do what you can to fix the smell, then let time work it’s magic.

You can sweat all day and not stink... Working, working out, playing sports, and any other activity involving sweating, if you use deodorant (like 95% of people use nowadays) you will not stink for a min 8 hour period.

But of course if you wear same socks,drawers and clothes that you had on the day before while working out, playing sports, or working... people around you will know and it only takes 1 guy in a dressing room who loves to lead a "natural hygiene style" or leaves his socks in the locker... in any enclosed room that stench will stay for a while if the room is not maintained properly especially in the gym's dressing rooms.

That said, in the old days no matter if you play in the sand box outside, or go to kindergarten or any other school and if you stink... you will get a nick name that will stick with you forever, so everyone showered and everyone changed socks and clothes and before anyone left their house we always made sure we smell good, not to mention the girls we hung out with loved that also :-)...This was just the way of growing up and it was and is the way of life. Just saying.

I know it's an old thread, but a friend of ours adopted two special needs kids, and there was a huge adjustment period. The kids had plenty of quirks and weird behaviors. For example, the older boy (around 8), had a fear of brushing his teeth. The nightly teeth-brushing thing sent him through the roof, and he would become physical, violent, scared, hyperventilating, etc. It was a multi-hour adventure. Of course they got him help. But help takes time, effort, patience, therapy, and TIME, and while all of this help was going on, sometimes his teeth didn't get brushed. For a while. And more dental care necessary, and it becomes a cycle.

So, what I'm saying is to those who think you just pop a foster kid in the shower and teach him/her good hygiene, I know that it might not be that easy. And it might take more time and patience and maturity. And btw, foster kids are very often medicated with all kinds of things, so maybe those medications are affecting both the behavior and the scents.

The whole thing sounds challenging. I hope the smell eventually resolved, and I hope the kid figured out the hygiene.

I had a grandfather who sweat his brains out in coal mines. ........ he told his own boys, one my dad of course: No stink allowed!

They were Polish. You couldn't find more starch, more bleach , more soap, cleaner bodies, cleaner homes and don't start me on scrubbing the garage and the driveway. Don't tell me about stink. I know it needn't exist on your clothes or your body. That much I know.

Bleach and other cleaning products smell waaaay worse to me than honest sweat.

But this post isn’t about honest sweat from a hard day’s labour.

The smell of a person sitting around an enclosed area day in and day out is much, much worse (TO ME) than the smell of a person who has been working all day. (except at haying time. I have never encountered a worse human stink than a man after he’s been throwing hay all day.)

Throwing the end result of feeding that hay has a lovely smell as well!

wacokid....I still don't understand why you 'stink way worse than your wife' - since it seems that good hygiene was taught.

I'm from SoCal and do a lot outdoor activity, working outside recreation, you know sweaty, manly things. And when we moved to Texas I continued my outside activities. The humidty in Texas makes me sweat 10 times more. I will drench a shirt so much my belt will show salt stains. Very manly, I stink really bad after that. But I take a ice cold shower and will really lather up, really lather...Then I smell like a sweat flower, manly? Yes! And I am in great shape, very manly, 6' 3" 210 lbs, now can you get more manly, maybe? You can visit my youtube page, but it is very manly, if you can take it, I will post the link!!!

Apparently some people have never realized that every Body is different.

Actually I'm just glad those of you who can't get/keep the stink off are separated from me by miles and a keyboard. God bless you , at least you use screen names.

Some people are just stinky. Even if they bathe regularly. Its their pheromones coming out of the skin.

Ummm, Jan...

If you’ve never done anything that made your body smell, you are in the extreme minority. That would actually be kind of a sad existence, if I believed it.

(my poo stinks too. maybe yours doesn’t?)

LOL..........I'm not sharing my immaculate grooming habits. But no.............no stink. Sorry to disappoint you. I'll get you testimonials if need be, but I'd rather not : )

I'll add I have been in enough homes and enough laundry rooms and enough bedrooms and baths to UNDERSTAND why some of you may have issues..................................and I still say as I pass through those, No. Excuse.

Is the smell still there? If so, did you paint the room, including ceiling? If you've cleaned everything and repainted and the smell is still there, look for a hiding place such as behind a loose baseboard or in a heat/ac vent or even behind electrical outlet and switch plates -- if the kid was a jerk, he may well have hidden you a stink bomb for you to remember him by .

Jan do you honestly think that someone who occasionally smells bad “has issues”??

That’s so bizarre.

The OP is about a very specific circumstance involving an adolescent with a very specific set of challenges and needs. Very few if any here are going to have had that experience or managed those needs.

Most of us here are just average people who stink after they sweat hard, shower, wash their clothes, then smell fresh as little daisies. But getting stinky is completely natural and normal.

Interesting side discussion about smells, generally. I've noticed that people that drink a lot of beer or eat a lot of spicy foods can have a distinct smell, especially when they're sweating a lot . Not sure how that smell would stay in a room if the fabric absorbing the sweat was removed.

Another thought: if the boy was burning incense or sneaking and smoking something -- anything, including those odd sickening sweet tobacco products marketed to people not fond of tobacco smell -- that smell could permeate the walls requiring a kind of paint that would block the smell.

It is very true about foods eaten affecting body odors, as well as other substances ingested. Also some illnesses can have an impact on how people smell. My daughter has severe metabolic syndrome and hormone imbalances, she is type 1 diabetic, liver and pancreas are affected, digestive system is compromised - her BO and breath will knock you out. We can stifle it for short periods but ho boy - not comfortable for many people. Washing clothes and bed linens, towels etc with Borax is a big help - also baking soda or vinegar (the smell goes away) for cleaning helps. Internal health issues can present with unpleasant body odors and when this happens, it can be due to a serious condition, like liver or kidney disease, people can experience both offensive body odor and bad breath.

Really sweaty clothes and stinky sour smelling socks and tennis shoes get a half cup of lemon scented Mr. Clean added to the laundry load. You don't smell the lemon when the clothes are clean but the clothes do smell cleaner.

Even tho this is an old post, I too had to comment. Also have a son whose natural body odor I find offensive. No one else has mentioned it, but my nose is very sensitive. He showers frequently and dresses impeccably. My other son has his own "smell" also. Blindfold me and take me into each of their homes and I can tell where I am.

I find my sister & bother-in-law's home has "their" smell when I walk into it. It's not offensive, but does have a unique smell. If she gives me an article of her clothing, it has "their" smell on it.

Same thing for my parents home when they were alive - had a unique smell.

It is possible that the kid also has some metabolic disorder that gives off a specific odor.

For heavens sake. It's common knowledge bodies have a different scent. Don't confuse that with body ODOR, or a stale and unwashed scent. Surely we've had boyfriends, girlfriends where despite smelling "GREAT/just clean!!."......it wasn't attractive to our own nose in the way animal magnetism tends to work in humans and all animal nature. That said........?

I have seen sheets with the body shape imprinted on them even after a wash. I have seen undies on the floor that should have met up with a dumpster or a full gallon of bleach. Socks? Don't go there. Put it in the category of rooms that haven't been cleaned to the walls since a move in two decades ago. Ask a cleaning person if you don't believe me!

Now factor in this recent survey: Then ASK yourself : )

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/15/tommy-john-survey-45-americans-dont-change-underwear-daily/2026779001/

I’m so glad I’ve caught upon this old thread! I commented above about my son’s scent-which is just “off”, not a BO or sweaty smell. We’re clean, he’s clean, uses anti-perspirant, etc, etc. And he himself smells fine, if you were to sniff him! It’s just the air from any closed in space that he’s been in (like a bedroom with the door closed). The subsequent posters mentioned medical conditions and meds could be contributing to an odor-and that might be just it with my son! He has Crohn’s Disease and is on some major meds. Add a dash of hormones and that might be it! Mystery solved. Thanks Houzz!

There are people who don’t wear clean undies each day?! Ew.

N-A-S-T-Y!!!!!!!!