What We Can Learn From a Case of the Cooties

“Cootie outbreaks” flare up daily under the right conditions, primarily on elementary school playgrounds. It’s been a pandemic-level situation for many decades, too. Mark us all as survivors.

As adults, of course, we know that cooties are an imaginary health threat conjured up by young minds. Cooties 101 is not a medical school course.

“There’s no medical condition called cooties,” reassures pediatric infectious disease specialist Frank Esper, MD. “They’re not a germ, a virus or anything you can actually catch from another person.”

But there’s a history behind cooties, and even modern-day lessons to be gained, as Dr. Esper explains.

The cooties origin story

The word “cooties” traces back to the trenches of World War I. Those muddy pits were hotbeds for all sorts of creepy crawlies, including blood-sucking body lice that carried infectious diseases.

Soldiers used “cooties” to describe both the parasitic bugs that shared the trenches with them and the illnesses the bugs gave them.

“Lice were extremely common during wartime and caused itching, infections and the spread of disease,” Dr. Esper explains. “Calling them ‘cooties’ was slang, but it referred to something very real.”

Many believe the word comes from kutu, a Malay term for biting insects. Other theories connect to different languages and regional phrasing.

Whatever the inspiration, WWI soldiers brought the word “cooties” home with them once the fighting stopped. Gradually, it made its way into everyday lingo and evolved into games and imaginary bugs.

“By the time kids picked it up, the meaning had completely changed,” says Dr. Esper.

Cooties and childhood play

As you might imagine, make-believe cooties are a lot more fun than the ones that crawled through war zones.

Children around the world have been playing free-form cooties games for generations now. Typically, one or more “infected” players chase and try to catch their cootie-free friends to spread the disease.

Basically, in a world where adults make most rules, cooties games let kids create their own.

“Kids love games with structure,” notes Dr. Esper. “Cooties turn social interaction into something predictable and controllable.”

What cooties teach kids

In a way, cooties help children learn social rules. Kids often use cooties to draw boundaries, especially when they’re still learning how to express themselves.

That’s one reason cooties tend to show up in early elementary school — and why they’re often tied to group dynamics. (If little boys and girls get too close to each other, one is sure to give the other their cooties, remember?)

“Saying someone has ‘cooties’ is an easy way to communicate,” says Dr. Esper. “It’s rarely meant to be personal — though, unfortunately, it can be used to tease. It’s more about figuring out identity, belonging and personal space.”

This kind of interaction and thinking is a normal part of childhood development. As kids mature and gain better language and social skills, the habit of saying someone has cooties usually crawls away on its own.

Health lessons from cooties

The idea of “catching cooties” introduces kids to the concept of spreading sickness and even how to protect themselves to stay healthy. Here’s how a childhood game translates to real-life health guidance.

• How to avoid illness: Consider the basic rule of a cooties game: Avoid getting touched by someone with cooties. That’s similar to advice for dodging germs and illnesses like the flu. “Touch is one of the most common ways to transmit infections,” says Dr. Esper.
• The importance of vaccination: Want protection from cooties? A finger poke may do! A rhyme usually helps the cure take hold: Circle circle, dot dot, now you have your cooties shot. It offers an early introduction to how vaccines can boost the immune system.

Final thoughts

Play is an incredibly important part of childhood development. It can be a fun-filled way to learn life lessons and confront serious topics — like the spread of illness — in a safe and non-threatening manner.

Cooties have been part of that process for years, says Dr. Esper. That imaginary disease will probably hang around in some form for the foreseeable future, too — and hopefully, it’ll infect the next generation with the skills to avoid real health bugs.