Cooties - Play Treatment

Play Treatment

In the United States, children sometimes "immunize" one another from cooties by administering a "cootie shot." Typically, one child administers the "shot" using an index finger to trace circles and dots on another child's forearm while reciting this rhyme:

Circle, circle, Dot, dot - Now you've got the cootie shot!

In some variations, a child then says:

Circle, circle, Square, square - Now you have it everywhere!

In this case, the child receives an immunization throughout his or her body. These variations may continue to a final shot where the child says:

Circle, circle, Knife, knife - Now you've got it all your life!

Or this variation:

Circle, circle, Fire, fire - Now your shot will never expire!

Or this variation:

Nickel, nickel, Dime, dime - Now you've got it all the time!

Or:

Circle, circle, Penny, penny - Now you have it for infinity!

A variation of treatment, cure, or immunization play practiced by children from the Eastern US (known at least in Pennsylvania and West Virginia) involves spraying the victim or person to be immunized with an imaginary spray. Children may also "disinfect" areas previously occupied by infected individuals with a similar method. There is no associated rhyme with this practice.

In some countries, there is a slight variation of the original rhyme, it reads "circle, circle / dot, dot / now you've got the cootie lock". Note the variation in the final word of the rhyme from "shot" to "lock". The "lock" is deemed official once the child's right thumb and forefinger are touching while interlocking with the left thumb and forefinger from the left hand. The formation often resembles a figure eight. Children acknowledge there is very little that can be done to infect a friend with cooties if he/she has the "cootie lock" effectively in place. There is little explanation that points to why there is this slight, yet important variation within Canadian and American culture.

Alternatively, cooties can be immunized through one child creating a square using his or her index and middle fingers (making a peace sign in each hand and laying one on top of the other). The other child then pokes his index finger through the square, at which point he becomes immunized from cooties infection.

In playground lore, the power of a "cootie shot" is not limited to use as an immunization. The "victim" of cooties may receive a cootie shot as treatment, at which time the cootie shot may "cure" the disease. In this way, the cootie shot acts more like an antidote rather than a vaccine. When used as an antidote, sometimes a "cooties shot" is actually just a punch to the upper arm which then "cures" the punched one from the "disease".

Sometimes cootie catchers are constructed by children and used to trap cooties so the cooties can then be discarded.