Why babies smell lovely, but teens pong

BABIES are heaven scent but teens smell like hell, a study of parents shows.

The odour of a newborn was already known to be like a drug for women – an evolutionary trick to get them to bond with it.

But a study claims the effect wears off the older a child gets – especially past 14.

Researchers from the Technical University of Dresden said: ‘Parents typically report that the odour of their baby is one of the most pleasant scents they can imagine.

‘Within days or even hours of giving birth, mothers can distinguish the smell of their child from the smell of other babies.

‘While parents seem to enjoy the odour of their babies, they rarely talk with the same fascination about the body odour of their pubertal or post-pubertal children.’

They believe this is the result of the ‘baby schema’ – the theory that babies are born with big eyes, large heads and round faces so that we find them cute and look after them. Smell may work similarly. But, like big eyes and a round face, the researchers suggest a pleasant smell is no longer needed when a child can look after itself.

Asked to rate their child’s odour, 93.7 per cent of the 235 parents in the study said infants were pleasant or very pleasant.

But the study, in the journal Chemosensory Perception, found only 75.2 per cent thought the same of teenagers, who produce hormones such as testosterone that increase body odour.