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David Beckham Defends Daughter Harper's Pacifier Use

"You have no right to criticize me as a parent.”

Not only is David Beckham an incredible soccer player, but he’s one of Hollywood’s most beloved celebrity dads. On Monday, the father-of-four slammed critics for judging his daughter Harper’s use of a pacifier at four years old.

“Why do people feel they have the right to criticize a parent about their own children without having any facts??” he wrote on Instagram. “Everybody who has children knows that when they aren't feeling well or have a fever you do what comforts them best and most of the time it's a pacifier so those who criticize think twice about what you say about other people's children because actually you have no right to criticize me as a parent.”


Beckham’s response comes after The Daily Mail posted images of Harper and reported her to be “well beyond the age that most health experts would advise giving a child a dummy.” The article then went on to criticize the former soccer player and his wife Victoria, saying that they risk “stunting their daughter's speech” and “putting her teeth at risk of damage.”

While it’s true that long-term pacifier use can lead to dental problems, many of Beckham’s Instagram followers agreed that the issue is a family matter.

“Good for you!” one user wrote. “People really need to get a life and mind their own business. She's just a baby girl, and if she sucked her thumb, you wouldn't be able to take that away from her. It's just for comfort, and anyone that criticizes that needs to crawl back under the rock they came from.”

Another said: “You have beautiful children and these people need to leave you all alone good for you Harper to have such supportive [loving] parents.”

Besides Harper, the Beckhams are parents to three boys: Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz.

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