Gender of child?

Which is the gender of the word "child"?

I mean, should I write «the child is calling her mother" even if I don't know the ***? No. In such cases, we commonly refer to a child as 'it' if it is a baby. Otherwise, say 'his or her mother', or just make your best guess as to its ***.

Clive
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Child is an inherently gender neutral word, and only gains a gender if a gender is indicated. Using "his or her" in this situation is clunky, but it works. Some options:
The child is calling his or her mother.
The child is calling its mother.
You can also use "their," but it doesn't sound right with this sentence structure. So...
The child calls their mother.
Even though "their

In the US, this used to be gender-neutral, with the masculine pronoun used to mean either gender. However, today some writers might use the feminine pronoun, just to make the point that this is really gender-neutral, the feeling being that men should not object to this, if it is really gender-neutral.

DamnBiscuitsYou can also use "their," but it doesn't sound right with this sentence structure. So...The child calls their mother.

If you don't object to singular "they," I think "the child is calling their mother" is perfectly fine -- no need or advantage to changing it to "the child calls. . . "

Some people hate singular "they," but it has a long his