When Two Parents Went To Tuck Their Baby Into Bed, The Camera Captured Something Strange

There’s no more peaceful sight than that of a baby sleeping, so when two parents went to tuck their newborn baby up in bed, they couldn’t resist watching him for a moment. That’s when they noticed something unusual, however, and they caught the whole thing on camera.

Gabriel Moore is a family man. He dotes on his children, and since 2006, he has dedicated a YouTube channel to their adventures together. While the majority of his personal videos have modest viewing figures, one clip has taken the internet by storm. In 2002, Moore and his wife had just welcomed a newborn baby son called Tyler into the world. Like most new parents, they were absolutely smitten with their infant child. In fact, the couple would often sneak into his bedroom to watch him sleep soundly in his crib.

On one such occasion, Moore found Tyler fast asleep with one arm resting up by his face, presumably for comfort. Enamored with his baby boy, the adoring dad instinctively reached out to his son’s little hand, but then something strange happened. Happily for us, Moore managed to capture the weird phenomenon on camera.

In the resulting clip, a woman introduces the scenario by saying:

“Here’s Tyler in bed. Watch his arms.”

With that, Moore starts to tinker with his baby’s limbs. As Moore gently places the arm by Tyler’s face back by his side, the opposite limb flips into the air. Moore then moves the outstretched left arm back onto the mattress, but sure enough, the right one reaches back out as if controlled by some mechanical process. Tyler’s parents found the whole thing hilarious. In fact, they had to stifle their laughter so as not to wake their child up. As the baby’s arms swung up and down, however, they simply couldn’t help but giggle.

The couple were so enthralled by this odd phenomenon that they continued to operate Tyler’s arms for nearly a minute. Without fail, every time that Moore lowered one of his baby’s arms, the other one lifted into the air. To the increasing amusement of his parents, the action never woke the infant from his slumber.

Eventually, Moore attempted to hold both of Tyler’s arms by his side; however, the baby’s left hand refused to stay down. So, when his dad let go again, the tiny tot’s arm began ascending once more. It seemed that the movements were completely involuntary. But just as the dad was no doubt considering giving up, he finally managed to get both of Tyler’s arms down. With that, he quickly covered his son in a blanket and kissed him gently on the head.

After successfully tucking their baby in, the parents wrapped up their filming. As a result, no one knows exactly how long the baby managed to keep both his arms down. Judging by his mom and dad’s footage, however, it probably wasn’t very long. But if Tyler stayed warm and comfy, it didn’t really matter how he slept.

When the video emerged online some years later, it instantly proved a hit. People seemingly couldn’t get enough of Tyler’s adorable actions. In fact, since Moore first posted the footage on YouTube in 2011, it has clocked up more than 13 million views. Not everyone found the footage as funny as his parents did at the time, however. Some people felt that Tyler’s behavior could be a symptom of an underlying health issue.

“The baby has some neurological problem. This is not normal, consult a doctor please,” wrote one YouTube user.

Since the footage didn’t gain prominence until years after the incident took place, though, Moore could easily dispel this theory.

“To those that say contact a doctor that this is not normal, my son Tyler is now 15 as of December 2017 with no problems,” he wrote alongside the video.

Other users, meanwhile, claimed that the explanation for Tyler’s movements laid in his reflexes. Indeed, one user wrote that the Moro reflex was probably responsible. This occurs in all babies up to the age of four months, and one of its primary expressions is the outstretching of the arms. Scientists believe the Moro reflex is the only instinctive fear that human infants are born with, and it is thought that the reflex developed early in human evolution to help babies cling onto their parents when they were carried. Thanks to this instinct, if the infant lost balance, they could quickly grab hold of their carer.

What’s more, a sudden touch can trigger the Moro reflex, which seemed to be evident in Tyler’s case. Every time his daddy made contact with him, the baby’s instincts may have kicked into action. Unlike Tyler, though, other babies can appear quite distressed when the Moro reflex occurs. That’s because it demonstrates that a child’s nervous system is evolving, and after leaving the womb, the baby is being exposed to a vast number of new stimuli, some of which it may find distressing.

In order to soothe a baby experiencing the Moro reflex, parenting experts recommend using a swaddling technique. This involves wrapping a piece of fabric tightly around a baby to stop the limbs from flailing. This way, a baby’s arms and legs are drawn closer to their bodies, preventing the reflex from waking them up.

No matter what caused Tyler’s waving arms, his parents will probably never let the teenager forget about his bizarre behavior when he was a baby. But thankfully, he doesn’t seem to mind the attention he’s getting on YouTube. In fact, he has welcomed it with open arms.