diff --git a/packages/babel-plugin-react-jsx/src/TransformJSXToReactBabelPlugin.js b/packages/babel-plugin-react-jsx/src/TransformJSXToReactBabelPlugin.js
index 58296ef4ca02..308fc7116f8c 100644
--- a/packages/babel-plugin-react-jsx/src/TransformJSXToReactBabelPlugin.js
+++ b/packages/babel-plugin-react-jsx/src/TransformJSXToReactBabelPlugin.js
@@ -284,6 +284,17 @@ You can turn on the 'throwIfNamespace' flag to bypass this warning.`,
   function buildJSXOpeningElementAttributes(attribs, file, children) {
     let _props = [];
     const objs = [];
+
+    // In order to avoid having duplicate "children" keys, we avoid
+    // pushing the "children" prop if we have actual children. However,
+    // the children prop may have side effects, so to be certain
+    // these side effects are evaluated, we add them to the following prop
+    // as a sequence expression to preserve order. So:
+    // <div children={x++} foo={y}>{child}</div> becomes
+    // React.jsx('div', {foo: (x++, y), children: child});
+    // duplicateChildren contains the extra children prop values
+    let duplicateChildren = [];
+
     const hasChildren = children && children.length > 0;
 
     const useBuiltIns = file.opts.useBuiltIns || false;
@@ -294,10 +305,11 @@ You can turn on the 'throwIfNamespace' flag to bypass this warning.`,
       );
     }
 
-    let duplicateChildren = [];
     while (attribs.length) {
       const prop = attribs.shift();
-      if (t.isJSXSpreadAttribute(prop)) {
+      if (hasChildren && isChildrenProp(prop)) {
+        duplicateChildren.push(convertAttributeValue(prop.value));
+      } else if (t.isJSXSpreadAttribute(prop)) {
         _props = pushProps(_props, objs);
         if (duplicateChildren.length > 0) {
           objs.push(
@@ -307,13 +319,6 @@ You can turn on the 'throwIfNamespace' flag to bypass this warning.`,
         } else {
           objs.push(prop.argument);
         }
-      } else if (hasChildren && isChildrenProp(prop)) {
-        // In order to avoid having duplicate "children" keys, we avoid
-        // pushing the "children" prop if we have actual children. Instead
-        // we put the children into a separate object and then rely on
-        // the Object.assign logic below to ensure the correct object is
-        // formed.
-        duplicateChildren.push(convertAttributeValue(prop.value));
       } else {
         _props.push(convertAttribute(prop, duplicateChildren));
         if (duplicateChildren.length > 0) {