--- title: David Beckham Defends Pacifier for Daughter Harper description: David Beckham defends pacifier for Harper after Daily Mail article argued she was too old for it and could develop speech or dental issues canonical: https://time.com/3992403/david-beckham-harper-beckham-pacifier/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-11T14:47:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:16.705Z og:title: Here's What David Beckham Told the Critics Who Criticized His Daughter's Pacifier og:description: He slammed the 'Daily Mail' article in a post og:url: https://time.com/3992403/david-beckham-harper-beckham-pacifier/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What David Beckham Told the Critics Who Criticized His Daughter's Pacifier twitter:description: He slammed the 'Daily Mail' article in a post twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # David Beckham Has a Message For Anyone Criticizing His Daughter's Pacifier > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 11, 2015 2:47 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 11, 2015 2:47 PM UTC Soccer legend David Beckham defended his daughter Harper on social media Monday after a [_Daily Mail_](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3191650/Why-does-Harper-four-use-dummy-Experts-warn-David-Victoria-Beckham-s-little-girl-end-speech-dental-issues-continues-use-one.html#ixzz3iRDYjr81) article published photos of the four-year-old wearing a pacifier. The _Mail_‘s accompanying article argued experts thought the youngster was too old to be using a pacifier and thus at risk for developing “speech” or “dental issues.” “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,” he wrote in an [Instagram post](https://instagram.com/p/6NZyxMTWdt/?taken-by=davidbeckham), “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.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3992403/david-beckham-harper-beckham-pacifier/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3992403/david-beckham-harper-beckham-pacifier/"},"headline":"David Beckham Has a Message For Anyone Criticizing His Daughter's Pacifier","datePublished":"2015-08-11T14:47:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:16.705Z","description":"He slammed the Daily Mail article on Instagram","url":"https://time.com/3992403/david-beckham-harper-beckham-pacifier/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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