What science says about each old wives’ tale
| Tale | What the folklore says | What studies found |
|---|
| Heart rate | Over 140 bpm means a girl | No reliable difference between boys and girls in the first trimester |
| Carrying high or low | Low and out front means a boy | No better than guessing; the shape depends on muscle tone and body shape |
| Morning sickness | Strong sickness means a girl | Slightly more girls among women hospitalized for severe sickness; weak signal otherwise |
| Cravings | Salty means boy, sweet means girl | No study supports it |
| Skin, hair, dry hands | Glowing skin and thick hair mean a boy | Driven by pregnancy hormones in everyone; no link to sex found |
| Sleeping side, first foot | Left means boy | No study supports it |
The baseline is not exactly 50/50 either: about 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. So a quiz that always said “boy” would be right slightly more often than one that always said “girl”.
Other ways to guess boy or girl
This quiz is based on old wives’ tales, so treat it as a bit of fun. For another tradition, try the Chinese gender predictor, which uses the mother’s lunar age and month of conception. Only an ultrasound or a blood test can tell for sure. Meanwhile, you can see what your son will look like or what your daughter will look like from two parent photos, and check your odds of a double surprise with the twins calculator.
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See what my baby will look like →Questions parents ask
Can a quiz predict my baby’s gender?
No. These questions come from old wives' tales and are right about half the time, the same as a coin flip. They are just for fun while you wait.
When can I find out my baby’s sex for real?
A blood test (NIPT) can show the sex from about 10 weeks, and the mid-pregnancy anatomy ultrasound usually shows it between 18 and 22 weeks.
Is the heart rate myth true?
Studies find no reliable difference in fetal heart rate between boys and girls in early pregnancy, so it cannot predict the sex.
Does severe morning sickness mean a girl?
There is a small grain of truth. Women hospitalized for severe sickness early in pregnancy are slightly more likely to be carrying a girl. Ordinary nausea, which most pregnant women have, tells you very little.
Can a mother guess the sex by instinct?
Not reliably. In a Johns Hopkins study, folk signs such as how a woman carried did no better than guessing. Some mothers who went by dreams or feelings did better, but the group was small.
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