What does it mean when a baby puts their head on the ground?

Here are two good reasons to keep an eye on babies: 1. They’re vulnerable to the elements, like hawks or coyotes. 2. They might be able to spot a pregnancy before you have the chance to even pick up a Clearblue. Legend has it, if a baby looks through their legs while on all fours, they’re not just practicing for a new mommy-and-me yoga class. Rather, they might be prophesizing a younger sibling is en route.

Okay, okay, it’s really just an old wives' tale that you may or may not have heard while stranded at your cousin’s baby shower. The gist is that if a baby looks through their legs, they're predicting a pregnancy is on the way and/or “looking for” or wanting another sibling. (There are, BTW, zero baby pictures of me in this pose, and I somehow landed a brother at the tender age of 18 months. Rude.)

Recently, elite babies of Instagram have been assuming the pose, making me wonder…is it…could it possibly be…legit? When Man Repeller founder Leandra Medine Cohen recently posted an Instagram of her baby doing downward dog, the comment section bubbled with thoughts like, “PREDICTING ANOTHER PREGNANCY,” and “Another baby, your baby’s waiting patiently for a new addition.” Others @-ed Instagram director of fashion partnerships, Eva Chen, who, in recent months, has posted Instagram Stories of her toddler doing the same thing. “It’s something that @evachen212 use to say when she find her kids in this position,” one commenter writes. “I think it’s a joke.”

“Toddlers are working on depth perception. So I believe they may look upside down through their legs and see a totally different world." —Patti Wood, body-language expert

Well, like most pregnancy superstitions—or like, general superstitions for that matter—you can’t really rely on science to give you a straight answer, unless that answer is, “mmm, probably not.” And while it seems pretty dubious that babies may be able to tap into a magic sense to invoke a pregnancy, body-language expert Patti Wood was able to offer insight about the spontaneous inversions. She says they may have more to do with the child expanding their world versus a desire to expand their family size. “Mechanically speaking, our eyes see everything upside down,” Wood says. “The process of refraction through a convex lens causes the image to be flipped, so when the image hits your retina, it’s completely inverted. When babies are born, they see everything upside down, but after a few days the brain adapts the raw sensory information it brings in and turns it into a coherent, right-side-up image.”

Interesting, yes, but here’s where it gets cute: “Toddlers are working on depth perception. So I believe they may look upside down through their legs and see a totally different world," Wood says. And, a totally different world may well be one that includes an entirely new human (or the desire for one to manifest). Young children are malleable to making changes to the world around them. Could one way of expanding their world be the addition of a little sibling?

Considering that most children enter siblingdom between the ages of 2 and 3, the timing falls in line with "predicting" another baby on the way. But, final verdict: While I'm no doctor or witch, I wouldn’t put a lot of stock into your baby assuming this asana. If it happens, rather than focusing on whether they're predicting baby No. 2, enjoy the tiny human in front of you while they’re in this precious, curious stage of life. (Spoken like a true firstborn, #amirite?)

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The world of toddlerhood is a fascinating one. People frequently tell me that they could watch my toddler explore the world all day long, so insatiable is his curiosity — not to mention that contagious joy we all want to soak up. But little kids do some pretty baffling things, and half the time I have no idea why. For instance, why do toddlers stand on their heads? It seems they would rather see the sights upside down from between their legs than they would right side up like a normal human being. What gives?

Dr. Jill Creighton, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Medical Director of Ambulatory Primary Care Pediatrics at Stony Brook Medicine, says the reasons for this befuddling behavior are actually highly neurologically involved. “Brain development and learning occur in nonverbal and verbal children during their interaction with their environment," she tells Romper in an exclusive interview. "Being upside down is a way a child learns about their body and the sensations that occur in that position. It builds body awareness, which includes sensory and muscle memory, and will help inform a child's movement in the future." That's packing a heavy punch for something that looks like silly play. And Creighton isn't done yet. In fact, she's just getting started.

Playing upside down has been shown to stimulate the vestibular system, which is part of our body's sensory system that helps establish where the body is in relation to our environment. According to Creighton, children's brains and vestibular systems are going through a "training process" that includes interacting with their environment and building sensory and motor connections in the brain.

"The vestibular system has been shown to be imperative for balance, motor movement, and also cognition and orientation," Creighton explains. "The positioning of a child's head and the sensation of being upside down helps develop postural muscles for balance, helps the brain form strong connections that help muscles hold the head upright, and also provides neural feedback about the child's movement in relationship to the world around her."

But its not all about stimulation and strengthening. The pediatrician encourages parents to be aware that being upside down can actually have a calming effect on children. Although it might look like they are goofing off and getting riled up, it's possible that the opposite might be true. "Some children will seek this position during active play, while others find it calming when they are trying to wind down and rest. Don't forget that the last few weeks or months of gestation, a child is upside down in the birth canal." Some enjoy resuming that position to find a state of peace and comfort.

Licensed psychotherapist Dr. Mayra Mendez affirms the benefits that Creighton laid out. "Among the many sensory experiences that naturally take place in toddlerhood, hanging upside down, rolling on the ground, jumping and running are particularly activating of brain stimulation," she says.

"From a neurodevelopmental perspective, the action of briefly hanging upside down supports core body strength, which leads to gross motor skill mastery. From an emotional perspective, hanging upside down has a calming effect, reducing dysregulated movements and tantrum behaviors. From a cognitive perspective, experimentation supports development of cause and effect relationships, critical thinking, problem solving, and stress management."

Mendez also points out that being upside down strengthens the child’s capacity to see the world from alternative angles and perspectives, which will only benefit his intelligence down the road. "It helps the toddler to consider other points of visual referencing and apply knowledge to make sense of new information," she points out. "Seeing things upside down reinforces constancy even when the world is seen from a different angle." With benefits like these, I'm beginning to think maybe we all need to spend a little bit more time upside down.

Experts:

Dr. Jill Creighton, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Medical Director of Ambulatory Primary Care Pediatrics at Stony Brook Medicine

Dr. Mayra Mendez, PhD, PSJHC - The Child and Family Development Center

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