In case you’re wondering, Kristen Bell is still talking about her three year-old daughter contracting pinworms at preschool. Pinworms are an annoying, highly contagious but relatively harmless parasite that live in human intestines and can cause an itchy butt. (I could phrase it more clinically, but I think “itchy butt” is the least offensive.) They’re common and can recur even with treatment, which happened to Kristen’s daughter. We know this because she snapchatted about it and told the story on The Joel McHale show. Kristen and her husband, Dax Shepard, have been vocal about the fact that their two daughters are not famous too, that they should not be photographed and that they do not want their identities compromised. When they share personal stories like this about their children I wonder, though. Kristen is promoting an IMAX documentary she narrated called Pandas. (True fact: there are only 1,800 pandas left in the wild.) She spoke to USA Today about the fact that people must think she gives TMI, but she believes it should be openly discussed or something.
“I‘m sure there have been times when people have said, ‘TMI, Kristen, keep it to yourself,’ ” she laughed while chatting with USA TODAY about narrating the new IMAX documentary, Pandas. “When I found out what pinworms were, I was slack-jawed about how I had never heard of them before (and) how easy they are to catch. And it’s hilarious to get this disgusting disease from your child — why is no one talking about it?”
More: Adorable overload: ‘Pandas’ are heading to an IMAX theater near you
She and husband Dax Shepard, are also parents to daughter Lincoln, 5. After two bouts with the pesky worms, all is now well in the Bell household, the star confirms: “Our family is pinworm-free. Currently.”
No one talks about pinworms because it’s potentially stigmatizing for kids. It has nothing to do with cleanliness, but there’s still that misconception and most parents want to shield their children from ridicule. When my son had lice the school didn’t even want to notify the other parents and I objected, saying it was in everyone’s best interest. I found out from my teacher friends that some schools try to hide it from other parents, reasoning that kids with lice will be taunted, but I digress. Pinworms are not a disease and I wonder if Kristen’s daughter is going to find this funny when she googles herself as a preteen. You know that’s coming.
Kristen was also on Ellen this week, where she talked about the fact that she’s already recorded everything for Frozen 2 and that it’s “very good” but she can’t give any details. It’s not coming out until November, 2019. That movie was such a hit it’s surprising that the sequel is taking this long. It’s not Avatar. Remember one of the first times Kristen was on Ellen? Kristen shared a video then-boyfriend Dax took of her crying after he hired a sloth for her birthday. Ellen then showed Kristen a photo of a baby sloth and claimed she had a sloth on the show (she didn’t, that came next time) and Kristen started crying. That was in 2012, back before she had kids and before we realized how over the top she is.
Here’s Kristen talking about dancing with J.Lo at Ellen’s 60th birthday party. She said that Dax came over and c-kblocked her. (Her words.) Melissa McCarthy and Diddy were dancing too.
There’s another segment online where she talked about finally getting Dax’s Lazy Boy chair out of their living room. She said she just waited until he said he wanted to move it to his home office, where he does his podcasts. She also talked to Ellen about pandas and about visiting silverback gorillas in Africa with Dax.
She’s on the road to obsession with these worms. We heard you the first three times, enough.
KB, just STOP! Enough with the ringworm stories.
pinworms not ring worms
UGH! STFU! How mortifying for her kids, if this keeps up. Tell your friends – ok. Tell the world – repeatedly – you have a problem.
Please staaahhpp.
Where I used to live in London there was a clinic off the high street known for discreetly ridding children of lice. It was meant to be super low key and hidden amongst a row of terrace houses. It always made the laugh, the lengths they had gone to to posh up a lice cleaning clinic, and that parents would pay a premium for the illusion of privacy. I mean, kids and schools are incubators for gross things and diseases..what’s the surprise?
Also….vaccinate your kids. Hive immunity is real.
Can you image how embarrassing these stories will be for her children later? Kids can be ruthless. I can’t even imagine what possesses her to overshare this kind of information.
“Also….vaccinate your kids. Hive immunity is real.”
I wish you could vaccinate against lice!!! It went through my daughter’s school like wildfire this year. She got lice once in the summer (goes to day camp), and then TWO times this school year. A nightmare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, I didn’t mean vaccinating agaisnt lice…I was more snarking at anti-vaxxers…admittedly completely out of context.
I got what you meant……but I just wish there WAS a way to vaccinate against lice. lol. But it isn’t that kind of thing.
Now she wears a braid and lice repellent every day….so hopefully 3 times will be it for us. But I operate as if any day, she MAY be carrying it again and it is a really shitty feeling as a parent to be “careful” about how you hug your baby.
She’s exhausting
@ Astrid : she is like one of your “friends” from high school or college who has children and then becomes even MORE annoying (if that’s possible).
Oh how she grates.
Bell and Shepherd better get this oversharing out of their system. The easiest way to alienate a preadolescent or teenager is to disregard their privacy.
The oversharing highlighted by her constant demands for privacy of her family. When no one was paying attention to them anyway.
Now she just keeps talking about her daughter. Bodily functions. It’s a lot.
Is there no self awareness?
I guess she doesn’t have a lot to talk about?
I have three children and we had all of the common parasites. I agree with her that there is and shouldn’t be any shame to talk about it. In germany you have to tell the school that you have lice and each child in the class afterwards gets a notice that has to be signed by the parents and and a description how to examine your kids for lice and how to treat the “infection”. The common age to get pinworms and re-infect yourself is between 6 and 10. One of the main causes of re-infection is biting your fingernails. That helps if you want yor kids to stop doing that.
Nearly everyone gets these worms at one point in life, but as long the cycle of scratching and re-infection is broken (which as an adult it usually is…) you won’t really notice that you had them once they are “out of the body”.
Lice prefer clean scalps so it’s easier to extract blood. There should be no stigma about cleanliness in regards to lice.
she needs to stop. i can’t stand it when people tell gross stories over and over again to revel in how gross they are.
it’s not funny, it’s just gross.
I never want to see the word pinworms in a headline again. Plus, theyre not a disease!!!!
Ug, GOD, this again?????
Didn’t she and her husband make a big deal about “privacy” just a few years ago? What about her children’s privacy? Does that not matter now?
she has no problems sharing all these personal medical events for her children but apparently draws the line at revealing their faces.
it’s strange.
Eh, she doesn’t bother me at all. I’m sure pre children she assumed she’d be tight lipped and overly protective of them, but a lot of moms can’t help oversharing on social media. I still think it’s nice we have no idea what their children look like 5 years later, at least I haven’t seen any pics.
As for pinworms, a friend of mine and her family just got them and she thought it was hilarious. It happens, kids are nasty little thangs. We’re on month 5 of dealing with head lice on my daughter. They went around her school constantly, and her dance studio! The school does alert parents via email but never names the child, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve heard kids say oh I have lice but my mommy told me not to tell anyone….ugh! I’ve tried every treatment out there, even paid over 300 bucks at a treatment salon and the f*ckers keep coming back. I’ve treated everything in our house and car too. Fun fact-lice are evolving to be resistant to the treatments we use.
We just dealt with lice for the first time this year also. Good old fashioned comb out… everyday for a week and then again every few days after that with a fine toothed lice comb was what finally did the job. My daughter has super long hair too so it was no easy task. I got to be a pro toward the end though 😀
When l was a nanny in Australia, the kids mom used conditioner on kids hair. Apparently the creamy conditioner treatment kills lice as they cant breath in it. I live in Slovakia now and here we use tea tree oil in hair. My cousins daughter had lice three times and tea tree oil worked for them. I saw shampoos with tea tree oil for kids so l guess it works. Hope my curly daughter wont have too much issue in the future. We struggle with the combing as it is. 🤨
She needs to shut up and go away. The outfit she is wearing shows even more desperation. I dont like her but I check out what she says to see how more ridiculous she can get.
she’s a hate read for me, too
I never had any if these things growing up but I’m getting them now as an adult!! Pinkeye, ringworm. So effing disgusting.
Pinworms are not a disease.
When I was in grade school, we would have regular checks for lice. The school nurse would break a tongue depressor in half for each one of us and search our hair. Every kid would stand in line and then be checked. I never knew anyone who had lice, but I’m sure they found some at some point.
I don’t get how they’re “hilarious” either.
The over the counter lice eradication products do not do that great of a job. Call your doctor and get a prescription shampoo for this. It WILL kill them.