diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/child/TopChildrenQuery.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/child/TopChildrenQuery.java
index 3c6d736fd8e..5af54eb1d09 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/child/TopChildrenQuery.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/child/TopChildrenQuery.java
@@ -72,10 +72,12 @@ public class TopChildrenQuery extends Query implements ScopePhase.TopDocsPhase {
 
     private Map<Object, ParentDoc[]> parentDocs;
 
+    // Actual value can get lost during query rewriting in dfs phase, but this isn't an issue now.
     private int numHits = 0;
 
     // Need to know if this query is properly used, otherwise the results are unexpected for example in the count api
-    private boolean properlyInvoked = false;
+    // Need to use boolean array instead of boolean primitive... b/c during query rewriting in dfs phase
+    private boolean[] properlyInvoked = new boolean[]{false};
 
     // Note, the query is expected to already be filtered to only child type docs
     public TopChildrenQuery(Query query, String scope, String childType, String parentType, ScoreType scoreType, int factor, int incrementalFactor) {
@@ -100,7 +102,7 @@ public class TopChildrenQuery extends Query implements ScopePhase.TopDocsPhase {
 
     @Override
     public void clear() {
-        properlyInvoked = true;
+        properlyInvoked[0] = true;
         parentDocs = null;
         numHits = 0;
     }
@@ -208,7 +210,7 @@ public class TopChildrenQuery extends Query implements ScopePhase.TopDocsPhase {
 
     @Override
     public Weight createWeight(IndexSearcher searcher) throws IOException {
-        if (!properlyInvoked) {
+        if (!properlyInvoked[0]) {
             throw new ElasticSearchIllegalStateException("top_children query hasn't executed properly");
         }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/child/SimpleChildQuerySearchTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/child/SimpleChildQuerySearchTests.java
index c62a3606aa6..97ef80c4cc9 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/child/SimpleChildQuerySearchTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/child/SimpleChildQuerySearchTests.java
@@ -695,6 +695,16 @@ public class SimpleChildQuerySearchTests extends AbstractNodesTests {
                 .setQuery(boolQuery().mustNot(hasChildQuery("child", boolQuery().should(queryString("c_field:*"))).executionType(getExecutionMethod())))
                 .execute().actionGet();
         assertThat("Failures " + Arrays.toString(searchResponse.shardFailures()), searchResponse.shardFailures().length, equalTo(0));
+
+        searchResponse = client.prepareSearch("test").setSearchType(SearchType.DFS_QUERY_THEN_FETCH)
+                .setQuery(boolQuery().mustNot(hasParentQuery("parent", boolQuery().should(queryString("p_field:*"))).executionType(getExecutionMethod())))
+                .execute().actionGet();
+        assertThat("Failures " + Arrays.toString(searchResponse.shardFailures()), searchResponse.shardFailures().length, equalTo(0));
+
+        searchResponse = client.prepareSearch("test").setSearchType(SearchType.DFS_QUERY_THEN_FETCH)
+                .setQuery(boolQuery().mustNot(topChildrenQuery("child", boolQuery().should(queryString("c_field:*")))))
+                .execute().actionGet();
+        assertThat("Failures " + Arrays.toString(searchResponse.shardFailures()), searchResponse.shardFailures().length, equalTo(0));
     }
 
     @Test