Keeping your body clean and smelling good is an important part of growing up. It keeps you healthy and helps you to feel good about yourself. Have you ever walked into one of your classrooms and was started by the smell? That is the smell of body odor, or BO. As kids get older, they develop new sweat glands under their arms and around their genitals that secretes an odor. This is why it is so important to bathe and change clothes regularly.

Everyday clothes get dirty, sweaty, stained and grubby, especially the clothing right next to your skin. The smells and dirt will sit overnight and grow bacteria that worsen the smell the next day. It is important to stay away from cigarette smoke as well. The smoke from the cigarettes will soak into your skin, hair and clothes as well.

Did you know that your feet have the most sweat glands on your whole body? Since people spend a most of their days on their feet, it can get awfully sweaty in their shoes! If you only have one pair of shoes, make sure you take them off as soon as you get home to let them dry and air out. You might even want to do this outside. If you have several pairs of shoes, try wearing different ones each day so that they don’t get too stinky too quickly. Make sure you wash your feet everyday. If the sweat and dirt is building up in your shoes, then it will definitely build up on your feet if you don’t keep them clean. If you are in a public place, such as a park or a public pool, you need to be particularly careful to wash your feet and dry them well. It is also a good idea to wear sandals on your feet too to prevent getting fungal infections or other problems for your feet, such as warts!

It is a known fact that as you get older, your head will get oily faster, sweat more, and produce more dead skin cells. This means that you should wash your hair regularly with shampoo. Shampoo removes the sweat, oil, and dead skin cells. Be sure to rinse your hair good as well. Sometime conditioner helps to maintain hair’s softness and makes it easier to brush and comb.

Obviously teeth are important to take care of. If you lost your teeth, what would you eat with? How silly would you look in pictures? Make sure you brush your teeth a minimum of twice a day- once after breakfast, and once after dinner. Try to swoosh around some water around in your mouth some time between brushings to loosen any food that might be there. This will keep your teeth happy and healthy as well.

Be sure to bathe regularly! It is not just your head and feet that sweat, but your whole body. It is just as important to scrub with soap behind your ears, on your face, under your arms (where the new sweat glands are forming), between your toes, in your belly button, and down your back, not to mention your genital area. This will guarantee you will smell nice and look nice. If you are at an appropriate age, it might be time for you to start wearing deodorant daily too.