Baby squashed in tube picture baffles internet users

The unusual image of a confined tot puzzled viewers as to what was happening - but it turns out it was all for a good reason after all.

Arms aloft, this image of a baby seemingly squashed into a plastic tube had concerned viewers wondering what the infant was being subjected to.

The tiny tot is confined within a see-through tube which has been placed on a table.

The rosy-cheeked infant is squeezed into the cylinder, with its little hands forced above the head.

But it turns out there was nothing sinister going on - the apparatus is actually an x-ray device .

And the trapped tot is merely undergoing some medical tests.

The image has gone viral on Reddit and a former healthcare professional commented that the device was definitely not an instrument of torture.

He said, "I worked as a floor guy buffing and scrubbing at a hospital and every time I got to xray and radiology I always saw this machine sitting in the hallway and had to move it. I never once saw the xray tech grab it.

"I had no idea that is what this was. This pic answers a 3 year old question I never asked."

Another comment had an ingenious use for the picture.

"I'm totally saving this picture for when my 8-year-old asks me where babies come from and how they get in the mom's belly, 'See, sweetie, the doctors load the baby into the hopper on top, and this machine compresses the baby, and using high pressure, inserts it into the belly of the mom-to-be'."

We just hope this baby got all the treatment needed and is now on the mend.