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The term "Cooties" is defined as a children's term for an imaginary germ carried and transmitted by obnoxious or slovenly children. It is mostly used as a bullying term (ex. "Eww, cooties!), and has been used by children probably for more than 100 years if not longer.

The history of the word is not completely known, nor is it known who the first person was to use the term "cooties". People speculate that the word might have originated during outbreaks of body lice, fleas, bedbugs or other parasites that feed on human skin or blood. These conditions were very common in historical times, including up through the very early 1900s. Body lice, bedbugs, and fleas feasting on humans were hard to detect and difficult to eliminate before the 1900s.

Because these bugs or parasites are tiny, difficult to see, and difficult to notice or detect, people naturally worried about one person 'picking up' these bugs from another person. Since children more often play on the ground, in dirt, and in grass, where many of these bugs and parasites' eggs live, children are more prone to be affected. As well, children come in much closer contact to other children, so children can help the critters to affect another child. Children also are less likely to notice these bugs, except when the critters cause intense itching.

So, while the term "cooties" now refers to a fear of "catching" body lice, bedbugs, fleas, or parasites, it also refers to fear brought on by just imagining "catching" these bugs. This is why the word "cooties" often comes up again when schools find one child with body lice. Parents will then caution their children who aren't affected to "stay away from other kids" and to NOT share or use someone else's:

  • comb
  • hairbrush
  • hat
  • sweater
  • pillow
  • anything a person's head laid against when they were affected.

Children then began to take those directions, intended as education to make children cautious about sharing personal items, and began to try to also keep other children away. "Ewww, you have cooties!" is an effective way, as a child, to keep distance between yourself and another child. HOWEVER, today, saying something like that is no more than a form of bullying!

Facts about body lice, fleas, bedbugs, and skin parasites:

  • Eggs and live bugs (lice, bedbugs, fleas can live on material-fabric types of articles, such as pillows, stuffed animals, carpeting, etc.
  • Besides living on dogs and cats, children can get fleas in their hair and on the scalp by laying one's head on an affected animal or laying where an animal lays.
  • It is possible for a child to get fleas if a child plays with a dog inside its dog house.
  • Flea eggs can stay alive even on concrete floors and when a "warm body" walks through the area, newly hatched fleas can then jump onto the person.
  • Head lice like hair shafts, where eggs cling to the hairs. Brushes and combs can dislodge a few eggs, which can then be transferred to another person who uses the same hair brush or comb.
  • Bedbugs can hitch a ride from one location to another on a child's clothing, book bag, coat, etc. Bedbugs hitch rides in suitcases from hotels to an adult's home.
  • Where an adult confirms the presence of even one louse (the singular of lice), flea, bedbug, or other parasite, there will usually be hundreds or thousands more yet to be noticed, seen, or that have not yet hatched.
  • Doctors can treat the bugs that like to feed on humans.

Facts about "cooties":

  • The word is a made-up word.
  • "Cooties" is NOT a real condition, but is a word created out of fear.
  • "Cooties" is imaginary.
  • Neither boys OR girls can "get" cooties.
  • Over time the term has also been used by kids who thought they were being funny (another kind of bullying).
  • Saying someone has cooties is a form of bullying.
  • Some parents have introduced this word as being "funny" to their children, for example, saying, "Give your brother a hug--he doesn't have cooties!" In this sense, "cooties" is used instead of saying you're uncomfortable hugging or being too close to someone else.
  • When this word means YOU feel uncomfortable around someone, using the word will push the other person away. It's called ostracizing to make one person be outside of the group, and when a child is ostracized, they also get picked on and bullied by the entire group. This is unfair.
  • Even when an adult inspects a child's head, arms, and clothing and determines the child has been affected by one of these bugs, it is NOT "cooties", since cooties is a made-up word.
  • Once a bug is confirmed, the affected child is no longer affected once their hair / body, bedroom, and home have been treated. It's much the same as a child who comes down with an illness-- once the child is treated, the child is well and wouldn't deserve to hear someone say they had cooties.
  • Children do not have enough knowledge to inspect or detect the presence of a bug on another child; only adults can confirm whether any particular child is affected.
  • Children's feelings can be hurt by other children saying "You have cooties". Since name-calling is bullying, don't do it.
  • And the last fact about the word "cooties" is, it is time the word goes away and is not used again. It's based on fear and silliness. The word was created during times of distant past--in history of the 1400s to 1900s-- when many, many people were affected by bugs and parasites. The people who were not affected now always worried they would become affected. So, the word has been terribly overused and misused. It's old and out of style for today's kids.

NOTE: I deliberately used "affected" instead of "infected". Having these bugs or parasites feed on a person is not an "infection". If left untreated, though, secondary skin infections can develop from scratching.

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14y ago

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