diff --git a/src/App/ElementMap.cpp b/src/App/ElementMap.cpp
index f5851ccc58..9f49b94c0a 100644
--- a/src/App/ElementMap.cpp
+++ b/src/App/ElementMap.cpp
@@ -1192,7 +1192,7 @@ void ElementMap::addChildElements(long masterTag, const std::vector<MappedChildE
 
         // do child mapping only if the child element count >= 5
         const int threshold {5};
-        if (child.count >= threshold || !child.elementMap) {
+        if ((child.count >= threshold && child.tag != 0) || !child.elementMap) {
             encodeElementName(child.indexedName[0],
                               tmp,
                               ss,