This Toddler is Doing a Handstand in Her Crib

Nope, the below photo is not a screenshot from a horror movie. It’s from a friend’s Facebook page. Sommer Sherrod, who lives in Orlando, Fla., was watching her two-year-old on the a monitor when she noticed this:

That baby is doing a handstand in her crib. Photo via Sommer Sherrod.

And yes, that’s a real photo of a toddler doing a handstand in her crib. Now, children do yoga with parents all the time, but not unprovoked. This child was not instructed; she just did it naturally. How can this be real? We reached out to Sherrod to find out what happened. “Yes, it’s absolutely real. My daughter is a total daredevil! I never really asked about it being normal or not as I guess it has just become normal for us,” Sherrod says. “I have a short video of her doing it in the crib.”

The photo is dated and timestamped and has not been photoshopped. “Wow, impressive,” says Dr. Arshya Vahabzadeh, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “I have seen children sleep in so many unusual ways, that I think this falls within the normal range of possibilities.”

What exactly is a normal way of sleeping for a child? Vahabzadeh says that the ideal sleeping position is on a child’s back, although some children can fall asleep in usual positions (or moving around while trying to fall asleep) in ways that look more like they are participating in an exercise program. (Like what we see above.) “As part of growing up, children can sleep with their arm and leg muscles stretched out, ending up in odd positions when their bodies press out against walls, cribs, or headboards,” he says. “Most of the time they can be repositioned to sleep on their back, and usually these odd sleep positions are not a sign of a serious medical condition. Certain symptoms, such as the presence of difficulty breathing at night, or problems with body movement when the child is awake, should prompt parents to seek medical advice.”

But when it comes to the above photo, everything looks just fine. So if you find your baby doing one of yoga’s most challenging poses in their crib, no need to fret. “If I were a betting doctor, I would say the baby will be a fan of early morning yoga workouts,” Vahabzadeh says.

We most definitely agree.