Expose Yourself to Microbes & Pathogens

“Mom, look at this!” my seven year-old called excitedly. She had found a shelf of stuffed toys shaped like microbes. “Look, this one’s the common cold!”

We spent a long time looking at the plushy pathogens, and my four year-old demanded that I explain what each one did. I resisted buying any, but two days later I gave in and trekked back to the store, where my daughters, after a lot of agonizing, selected a mad cow disease prion and a white blood cell, and I indulged myself in a giardia and a Black Death plague cell.

Who can resist a plush pathogen? These toys are irresistible. For little kids, they’re just plain cute, plus kids love the idea of bugs and disease. (My four year-old likes to pretend her mad cow prion is threatening to eat our brains, and she and her sister stage fights between the white blood cell and the mad cow disease). My friends are dying to buy these for themselves.

Each stuffed toy comes with a very informative tag showing an image of the actual microbe and what it does. Available online at giantmicrobes.com, you can pick between exotic diseases, such as malaria, flesh-eating fasciitis, ebola, and African sleeping sickness, or the more commonly found mononucleosis, common cold, sore throat, or flu.

There are also brain cells (a cute gift for the geek in your life), blood cells, and fat cells. A weirdly fascinating set chronicles STD’s in plush.

My four year-old is longing for the chicken pox stuffed microbe. “Have I been good enough to get two bugs?” she asked slyly. Pick up these highly reasonably priced toys, priced at $7.95 each, as educational toys or as gifts.