Gender Predictor Games: The Methods Parents Use To Guess Their Baby’s Sex Revealed

While not all expectant parents want to know the gender of their child, plenty can’t wait to find out.

And according to new research, pregnant couples are going to all sorts of lengths to guess their unborn baby’s sex before the 20-week scan.

A poll conducted by Netmums has outlined the most common methods that parents are using. And while it shows that plenty of traditional gender guessing techniques are used, a huge number of more unusual methods have also been revealed.

The Gender Guessing Game
A third of the 2,227 women polled admitted to uploading their unborn child’s scan photo to Twitter and Facebook to see if anyone can guess the baby’s sex correctly. A fifth also put their scan on parenting websites for the same reason.

Those guessing can use a parenting trend, dubbed the ‘nub theory’, to make their predication. The theory uses the 12-week scan photo to see where the nub (the tiny lump where the child’s genitals will develop) is pointing.

The idea is that is the nub is pointing up by an angle of 30 degrees or more then the baby is a boy, but it it’s pointing at an angle of less than 30 degrees then it’s a girl.

According to the poll, one in 10 parents are using the theory and an impressive seven in 10 claim the technique correctly guessed their child’s gender.

Another popular gender-guessing method, which six per cent of those polled used, is the ‘skull theory.’ A square skull and jaw are thought to indicate a boy and a rounder skull means it’s a girl.

Gender Prediction MethodsWhile analysing scan photos is one way to guess the baby’s sex, the poll showed that lots of the more traditional methods are also used.

Seven out of 10 mums-to-be use the shape of their bump to hazard a guess at their baby’s gender. A wider bump is thought to hint at a girl while a protruding bump suggests it could be a boy.

A third of the mums analyse their food cravings and half of those polled tried to predict the gender by their sickness levels. A twelfth looked at the size and shape of their breasts and a fifth used a Chinese Gender Calculator to guess the gender using conception date and the mum’s age.

Swaying The Baby’s Gender
Parents aren’t only trying to find out their baby’s sex – one in eight couples confessed to trying to ‘sway’ the gender of their child, using various techniques.

A third had sex in specific positions, a fifth tried to conceive at certain times of the month and one in 16 couples tried to time their baby making efforts to match the different phases of the moon.

Some even admitted to trying out a ‘gender diet’ to influence whether they conceived a boy or girl.

It’s thought that a low calorie diet busting with leafy greens makes a girl while those wanting a boy should be munching on high calorie and potassium rich foods.

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Did you find out the sex of your baby before the birth? Let us know in the comments.