Pit Pads for Puberty

I have seen these things occasionally in drug stores, but never gave them a second thought, because the idea of attaching something to my shirt to hopefully soak up my sweat and stink did not appeal and it seemed like it would be itchy.

As my kid has grown into a more pubescent human, it has become apparent that being a little more on the ball about body odor is more imperative than it used to be. With that in mind, my husband has insisted that we start using these. Another issue that we've had is that as a Caucasian woman, I don't necessarily have the same sweat glands and sense of scents as my Japanese husband does. He insists that things smell awful when I cannot smell them at all and if we were in America, I would probably assume that he was gaslighting me. Because we were in Japan, and I have noticed that a lot of scents here are very subdued and a lot of people's noses more sensitive than mine, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and we started using these to help make sure that our daughter stays safe from any unwanted attention or bullying caused by things like having international interracial sweat glands that don't necessarily abide by Japanese norms at a time of life when even Japanese norms would have extra stink.

We've also made a point of using American deodorant and supplying her with body wipes and mini size Japanese deodorant that she can use during the day if she feels sweaty or icky at any point. 

These armpit pad things aren't that hard to acquire or use. They do add up to some extra garbage but so far they seem to be helping keep the sweat stains from the uniform and that is beneficial.

The instructions are as follows. Remove from plastic outer packaging. Remove the paper label from one side. Stick it to the lower half of the inside armpit of the shirt. Remove the paper label from the upper side and stick that down, too. There you have it, a protected unit.

Do remember to remove the pad when changing out of the garment to prevent washing the pad in the washing machine, which is very much not what it was meant to do.

Since I could not smell the problem before, I also do not smell the problem now, but my husband insists that this has been beneficial on our quest toward being less stinky in general.