diff --git a/doc/api/child_process.md b/doc/api/child_process.md
index cc8b8ce8c67b97..dec05fab22a04a 100644
--- a/doc/api/child_process.md
+++ b/doc/api/child_process.md
@@ -160,8 +160,8 @@ The `stdout` and `stderr` arguments passed to the callback will contain the
 stdout and stderr output of the child process. By default, Node.js will decode
 the output as UTF-8 and pass strings to the callback. The `encoding` option
 can be used to specify the character encoding used to decode the stdout and
-stderr output. If `encoding` is `'buffer'`, `Buffer` objects will be passed to
-the callback instead.
+stderr output. If `encoding` is `'buffer'`, or an unrecognized character
+encoding, `Buffer` objects will be passed to the callback instead.
 
 The `options` argument may be passed as the second argument to customize how
 the process is spawned. The default options are:
@@ -230,8 +230,8 @@ The `stdout` and `stderr` arguments passed to the callback will contain the
 stdout and stderr output of the child process. By default, Node.js will decode
 the output as UTF-8 and pass strings to the callback. The `encoding` option
 can be used to specify the character encoding used to decode the stdout and
-stderr output. If `encoding` is `'buffer'`, `Buffer` objects will be passed to
-the callback instead.
+stderr output. If `encoding` is `'buffer'`, or an unrecognized character
+encoding, `Buffer` objects will be passed to the callback instead.
 
 ### child_process.fork(modulePath[, args][, options])