diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/libxml.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/libxml.rb
index d4c4dc7be5..2ae22c35fb 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/libxml.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/libxml.rb
@@ -9,16 +9,18 @@ module ActiveSupport
     # data::
     #   XML Document string or IO to parse
     def parse(data)
-      if data.respond_to?(:read)
-        data = data.read
+      if !data.respond_to?(:read)
+        data = StringIO.new(data || '')
       end
-
+      
       LibXML::XML.default_keep_blanks = false
-
-      if data.blank?
+      
+      char = data.getc
+      if char.nil?
         {}
       else
-        LibXML::XML::Parser.string(data.strip).parse.to_hash
+        data.ungetc(char)
+        LibXML::XML::Parser.io(data).parse.to_hash
       end
     end
 
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/nokogiri.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/nokogiri.rb
index 7337c143c9..622523a1b9 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/nokogiri.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/nokogiri.rb
@@ -9,13 +9,15 @@ module ActiveSupport
     # data::
     #   XML Document string or IO to parse
     def parse(data)
-      if data.respond_to?(:read)
-        data = data.read
+      if !data.respond_to?(:read)
+        data = StringIO.new(data || '')
       end
-
-      if data.blank?
+      
+      char = data.getc
+      if char.nil?
         {}
       else
+        data.ungetc(char)
         doc = Nokogiri::XML(data)
         raise doc.errors.first if doc.errors.length > 0
         doc.to_hash
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/rexml.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/rexml.rb
index 1184d2d6c9..aa2461535b 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/rexml.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/rexml.rb
@@ -15,13 +15,19 @@ module ActiveSupport
     # data::
     #   XML Document string or IO to parse
     def parse(data)
-      if data.respond_to?(:read)
-        data = data.read
+      if !data.respond_to?(:read)
+        data = StringIO.new(data || '')
+      end
+      
+      char = data.getc
+      if char.nil?
+        {}
+      else
+        data.ungetc(char)
+        require 'rexml/document' unless defined?(REXML::Document)
+        doc = REXML::Document.new(data)
+        merge_element!({}, doc.root)
       end
-
-      require 'rexml/document' unless defined?(REXML::Document)
-      doc = REXML::Document.new(data)
-      merge_element!({}, doc.root)
     end
 
     private