diff --git a/lib/internal/child_process.js b/lib/internal/child_process.js
index 8e6a303a2e27a5..591ff8440537c0 100644
--- a/lib/internal/child_process.js
+++ b/lib/internal/child_process.js
@@ -384,12 +384,12 @@ ChildProcess.prototype.spawn = function(options) {
       continue;
     }
 
-    // The stream is already cloned and piped, thus close it.
+    // The stream is already cloned and piped, thus stop its readable side,
+    // otherwise we might attempt to read from the stream when at the same time
+    // the child process does.
     if (stream.type === 'wrap') {
-      stream.handle.close();
-      if (stream._stdio && stream._stdio instanceof EventEmitter) {
-        stream._stdio.emit('close');
-      }
+      stream.handle.readStop();
+      stream._stdio.pause();
       continue;
     }
 
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-child-process-server-close.js b/test/parallel/test-child-process-server-close.js
index ec95fed67b4fa7..d70926f2e8278e 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-child-process-server-close.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-child-process-server-close.js
@@ -8,11 +8,11 @@ const tmpdir = require('../common/tmpdir');
 tmpdir.refresh();
 
 const server = net.createServer((conn) => {
-  conn.on('close', common.mustCall());
-
   spawn(process.execPath, ['-v'], {
     stdio: ['ignore', conn, 'ignore']
-  }).on('close', common.mustCall());
+  }).on('close', common.mustCall(() => {
+    conn.end();
+  }));
 }).listen(common.PIPE, () => {
   const client = net.connect(common.PIPE, common.mustCall());
   client.on('data', () => {
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-child-process-stdio-merge-stdouts-into-cat.js b/test/parallel/test-child-process-stdio-merge-stdouts-into-cat.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..0158cbc2271aec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-child-process-stdio-merge-stdouts-into-cat.js
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+'use strict';
+const common = require('../common');
+const assert = require('assert');
+
+// Regression test for https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/27097.
+// Check that (cat [p1] ; cat [p2]) | cat [p3] works.
+
+const { spawn } = require('child_process');
+const p3 = spawn('cat', { stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', process.stderr] });
+const p1 = spawn('cat', { stdio: ['pipe', p3.stdin, process.stderr] });
+const p2 = spawn('cat', { stdio: ['pipe', p3.stdin, process.stderr] });
+p3.stdout.setEncoding('utf8');
+
+// Write three different chunks:
+// - 'hello' from this process to p1 to p3 back to us
+// - 'world' from this process to p2 to p3 back to us
+// - 'foobar' from this process  to p3 back to us
+// Do so sequentially in order to avoid race conditions.
+p1.stdin.end('hello\n');
+p3.stdout.once('data', common.mustCall((chunk) => {
+  assert.strictEqual(chunk, 'hello\n');
+  p2.stdin.end('world\n');
+  p3.stdout.once('data', common.mustCall((chunk) => {
+    assert.strictEqual(chunk, 'world\n');
+    p3.stdin.end('foobar\n');
+    p3.stdout.once('data', common.mustCall((chunk) => {
+      assert.strictEqual(chunk, 'foobar\n');
+    }));
+  }));
+}));