Review and Giveaway: GIANTmicrobes

[Note: Comments and contest are now closed.]

First off: the awesomeness.  GIANTmicrobes has given me a plush cold virus and a plush flu virus to give away to one lucky reader!


To enter to win the toys, leave a comment at the bottom of this post.  For me to be able to reach you, you need to either like me on Facebook or leave your email somehow in your comment.

Only one person can win, so you can also like GIANTmicrobes on Facebook and on Twitter if you want to be kept in the loop on other give-aways they might be doing.

To enter to win an actual cold or flu virus, send your children to school / daycare / friend's house / grocery store / playgroup and they will conveniently bring one home right to you.  That way, everyone can win the prize of being violently ill.

So, Little Dude has this germaphobia thing that started when his preschool did a program on the flu virus.  It included seeing a video about Scrubby Bear.  It's one of the freakiest videos imaginable: child-size Pedo-Bear who has broken into the house, hanging out in the kid's bedroom at night; talking claymation soap dispenser; and rapping human-size germs.



Thus, some interesting new OCD behaviors were born in Little Dude, which I wrote about in my post Fun with OCD. Um, Not Really.  Several readers left comments on that post that I should check out GIANTmicrobes.  Because I am always happy to learn from the experiences of other moms, I went directly to the GIANTmicrobes website.  Because I am cheap and don't receive any income from this blog, I then emailed GIANTmicrobes directly and asked if I could have a couple germs to review and a couple to give away.  And they said yes!  Because they are awesome like that.

Now, it's not like I just gave Little Dude these cute plush little guys and it solved his OCD or his germaphobiness.  But, I've used them as tools to discuss how there are good germs and bad germs.  I'm using them to reinforce the idea that the germs he saw in the school videos were pretend.  I'm still using their website to show how teeny-tiny actual germs are.

The pretend vs. real thing is an ongoing struggle for Little Dude, partly because he's four, but partly because many Aspergians tend to take things literally.  So we're working on it.

I love GIANTmicrobes.  Each toy comes with an illustrated card with a magnified photo of the actual virus, facts, and tips for avoiding getting sick.  The website is full of the awesome.  They have all kinds of crazy germs that make terrific gifts for just about everyone on your shopping list.  I mean, isn't there someone in your life that deserves to get the clap?

And with so many crappy toys on the market (Bratz dolls, I'm looking at you), wouldn't you rather give your children something that's fun, disgusting, and educational?  Which reminds, me, I've got some great idea for joint marketing.

Okay, probably, you don't want to give your little girl chlamydia.  A petri dish of fuzzy E. coli, though, that's just awesome.