Body Odour

[robert551069]

My wife, 80, has Parkinson's disease and has to pay a fortune for a 24/7/365 lady carer,53, from Kenya.
This carer is normally very careful about her personal hygiene, but during the hot weather has started to "pong" a bit.
Not wanting to offend her, but disliking the smell, I am at a loss as what to do.
I can't give her pefume as she already has some.
I would be grateful for advice as how to handle with this matter tactfully.

[Tilly2]

What hot weather? Do you live abroad?
Is she from an agency? Perhaps you could ring them and explain the problem and someone there may be able to address it with her.

[robert551069]

Thank you for your suggestion, Tilly2

[LochNessMonster]

Open a window in the room, hopefully she will take a hint. Say something like its a bit stuff in here I'll open the window.

[DTCwordfan]

I would go further with the window opening "There's a pungent smell in here."

[LochNessMonster]

O could have said "Get yer reeking body oot my house" but I'm to innocent !

Nessie O :- )

[daffy654]

Speak to her boss.

[albaqwerty]

If the lady is coming in after she's attended to a couple of clients before attending to your wife, then a slight pong might be noticeable.

Have a quiet word with her boss, as has been suggested.

[Dee Sa]

there is nothing you can do about this you will find that no one will approach the subject with the lady concerned been there tried that didnt work.Though the agency/supervisor will be sympathetic they wont actuallysay anything to the person and if they are from the African continent too will probably be miffed.

[tamaris]

I have had this problem with men and women, and working in the food industry it could not go on, I took them to one side and asked them what deodarant they used as it did not appear to be working, sometime you just have to tell it like it is.

[rowanwitch]

You could suggest she has picked up a whiff from her last client make sure you were not the first call though

[robert551069]

Thank you for your replies, LochNessMonster, DTcrosswordfan, daffy654, DeeSa, tamaris.

[tamaris]

You are welcome x

[tiggerblue10]

I always find it strange how the person themselves can't smell it. I do know that there are quite a few people who don't use antiperspirants for some reason or other. And then there are those who suffer from hyperhidrosis and no matter how often the use an antiperspirant they can't stop sweating. Its quite common.

[robert551069]

Thank you for your reply, Tiggerblue

[starone]

Perfume will not help, it just makes the body odour more apparent. Strange how we dislike the smell and yet it would have been the way we were attracted to each other in the dim and distant past.

[Kiki-frog]

Perfume will make it worse anyway. Nothing worse than the smell of perfume mixed with stale sweat. Yuck. I think you're going to have to bite the bullet and tell her as tactfully as you can. Maybe you could begin by asking after her health/welfare - 'Is everything ok, as I couldn't help but notice that recently you haven't been taking care of yourself as well as you used to? This is really hard to say, but I've noticed a strange odour about you....'

OK, that sounds crap and definitely needs working on. But taking the health enquiry approach could be the tactful way of raising the subject.

[tiggerblue10]

No problem Robert. Maybe you could buy her her toiletry set as a thank you and include some antiperspirant in it like Mitcham.

[andy-hughes]

A person of African origin may enjoy a highly spiced diet, and the smells from some of these spices extrude through the skin pores in the following days.

Thus, the odour is not BO as such - that is caused by the bacteria that breed in sltale perspiration on the skin and in clothing.

It may be that the lady has a perfectly adequate hygene routine, but that her diet may be the issue. If you approach the issue from that perspective you may be more successful, because the problem is caused not by sufficient cleanliness, but simply by eating pungent foofstuffs.

You could always bring the conversation round to garlic, and its lingering after-odour, and then start to talk about her diet, and mention that the same effect happens for 'some people'. If she doesn;t work out your hints from there, you may have to simply tell her, as nicely as possible.

Personally, I'd rather know, rather than whiffing away in blissful ignorance - it's the nicer of the two evils.

[starone]

Buy a few deodorants - roll-on or spray - put them in a bag and say 'I've just been clearing out a few drawers and I found these not used, I expect (insert your wife's name here) bought them when she was in good health. Do you think you could use them up?' Or perhaps to be a bit less obvious put a couple of shower gels in or some body cream. Put them in a plastic bag so as not to be too obvious. Can't think of any other way. Make sure you do not include the receipt from the shop where you bought them.

[Smowball]

How about those room air freshners that squirt whenever you walk past them ?