Up to this point, the true logic behind the Chinese lunar calendar’s gender prediction remains a mystery. Many proponents believe that this chart was made with the use of the five Chinese elements and ancient statistics spanning thousands and thousands of years.

Many critics argue that the accuracy of the Chinese baby gender predictor is around fifty to fifty-four percent (in favor of having a boy), almost equivalent to flipping a coin. But experts in the use of the Chinese birth chart believe that for this method to work, it must be done within a set of conditions or rules. The following are guidelines that must be followed to ensure ninety-nine percent effectiveness with the use of this method.

First, make use of a lunar calendar. The ancient Chinese birth chart uses the lunar phases through the lunar calendar. This cannot be emphasized enough. A lunar calendar indicates dates according to the phases of the moon. A lunar month is determined by the period it takes for the moon to complete its “full phasic cycle” or twenty-nine and a half days. A standard lunar year is eleven days shorter compared to the solar or Gregorian calendar. The difference between lunar years and solar years is made up every nineteen years by the addition of seven lunar months or leap months. This distinction is important. The difficulty arises when some mothers mistakenly use Gregorian calendars instead of lunar calendars, especially in times of leap months and leap years. Resources are available online to convert the Gregorian calendars and their age to their lunar equivalents.

Second, remember that a newborn baby is one year old according to Chinese customs and traditions. The age increases or is added by one every Chinese New Year. With this, we assume that a baby born the day before Chinese New Year will be two years old by Chinese New Year. It is also this peculiar difference between Chinese and Western societies that affects the miscalculation of ages in the table.

Remember that the age of the mother is an important reference in predicting the sex of the baby. To fix this, follow these steps. Subtract your year of birth from the year your baby was conceived and use this result. Check if her birth date is before or after Chinese New Year in the particular year of her birth date. Check if your baby’s conception date is before or after the Chinese New Year of your particular year. If the time of conception and the date of birth are in sync, meaning they are both earlier or later than the lunar year, add one year to the result of the difference between your birth year and the baby’s year of conception. If her time of conception is before the lunar year and her date of birth is after Chinese New Year, do not add to the result. If her conception date is after Chinese New Year and her birth date is before Chinese New Year, add two to the result. This will be her lunar age.