Why is an adorable baby squished into a test tube?

It may look like some kind of 1950s torture device, but in fact, it’s stranger than that…

Why on earth is this baby in TUBE?

Why is he all squished into a container, with his chubby little arms stuck above his head and his big eyes whispering, “help me”?

This image has had a lot of people confused after it was posted on Reddit two days ago.

Some confounded commenters wondered if the baby was being deposited into someone’s bank account. Others pondered if this was the millennial answer to the proverbial stork.

“Those storks did a shitty job delivering babies, so we upgraded to BabyTube2000(tm),” one user quipped.

“I thought it was a blender,” commented another, more troubled, commenter.

A few thought the tube looked like chocolate pipes in the Willy Wonka factory – very observant, but no cigar.

Thankfully, this contraption is neither a “stork” nor a some kind of transportation device.

It is an X-ray machine.

The plastic “tube” is merely holding that gorgeous baby still while he has his X-ray taken.

But, wait for it, the best part is the name of this device.

It is called… the Pigg-o-stat.

Would you be in a hurry to place your child in something called a “Pigg-o-stat”?

If, like me, you’re wondering from which century the Pigg-o-stat came, the answer is the previous one (in 1960, to be exact), but apparently it is still in use today.

At least one other Reddit commenter verified the story.

“I worked as a floor guy buffing and scrubbing at a hospital and every time I got to X-ray and radiology I always saw this machine sitting in the hallway and had to move it,” the self-titled ‘UniformedCommenter’ wrote.

“I never once saw the X-ray tech grab it. I had no idea that is what this was. This pic answers a 3-year-old question I never asked. Thanks.”

There you go folks, problem solved.

Have you ever seen this machine before?