diff --git a/src/stream_base.cc b/src/stream_base.cc
index a9ea347ca6bd47..c641845d19c2b2 100644
--- a/src/stream_base.cc
+++ b/src/stream_base.cc
@@ -452,6 +452,8 @@ void StreamBase::AddMethods(Environment* env, Local<FunctionTemplate> t) {
 
 void StreamBase::RegisterExternalReferences(
     ExternalReferenceRegistry* registry) {
+  static bool is_registered = false;
+  if (is_registered) return;
   registry->Register(GetFD);
   registry->Register(GetExternal);
   registry->Register(GetBytesRead);
@@ -471,6 +473,7 @@ void StreamBase::RegisterExternalReferences(
   registry->Register(
       BaseObject::InternalFieldSet<StreamBase::kOnReadFunctionField,
                                    &Value::IsFunction>);
+  is_registered = true;
 }
 
 void StreamBase::GetFD(const FunctionCallbackInfo<Value>& args) {
diff --git a/src/stream_wrap.cc b/src/stream_wrap.cc
index ff3df6bc5db7bd..ef85ba681f8588 100644
--- a/src/stream_wrap.cc
+++ b/src/stream_wrap.cc
@@ -108,8 +108,7 @@ void LibuvStreamWrap::RegisterExternalReferences(
   registry->Register(IsConstructCallCallback);
   registry->Register(GetWriteQueueSize);
   registry->Register(SetBlocking);
-  // TODO(joyee): StreamBase::RegisterExternalReferences() is called somewhere
-  // else but we may want to do it here too and guard it with a static flag.
+  StreamBase::RegisterExternalReferences(registry);
 }
 
 LibuvStreamWrap::LibuvStreamWrap(Environment* env,