--- 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  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. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3992403/david-beckham-harper-beckham-pacifier/","name":"David Beckham Has a Message For Anyone Criticizing His Daughter's Pacifier"}}]}] ```