Have you heard of the egg sock hack?

If you’re a parent on the internet, chances are you’ve come across the completely mind-boggling viral Facebook post about an egg in a sock and how it can be used to ease a baby’s teething pain.

The hack – which sees parents pop an uncooked egg in a sock (yes, really) and hang it above their baby’s bed – has been shared left, right and centre on various parenting groups.

Some parents swear by it, others say it’s a load of BS and the rest are caught in between, equal parts intrigued and baffled by it.

So where did the egg sock hack originate?

Turns out it’s been around for years, however mum Kate Garrett brought it to the internet’s attention recently when she shared an update on Facebook about how her baby had stopped sleeping well at night and she’d tried it.

“We ordered different sleep sacks. Tried different bath supplements,” she wrote. “Figured it was a growth spurt, lost our minds for a bit. I asked Axel to hang up an egg sock just in case it was his teeth.”

Apparently their baby slept all night after the egg sock went up – and continued to do so. But then – as all good babies do – he started waking up again. “He’s on solids now so I thought maybe with his growing appetite he wasn’t staying full,” said Garrett.

“Last night I had Axel change the egg out while I gave the baby a bath and got him ready for bed. Last night he slept all night.”

She suggested the method works because “eggs absorb up to seven times their weight in carbon dioxide”. The theory – and it is an unproved theory – is that carbon dioxide puts pressure on the gums. So if you lessen the carbon dioxide in the room, you lessen the pressure, and therefore the pain.

Parents had questions: what was the egg sock? Was it quite literally, an egg in a sock? And what kind of sock – washed, unwashed, did it matter? Was the egg cooked? Raw? How had they fastened the sock to the wall? What happened if the sock fell off the wall? All valid questions, we might add.

There was much debate too. Parents went off to try it – some swore it worked, others said it didn’t do........

© HuffPost