Gabriella Ferlita
Parents are often found drawing the short stick when it comes to judgement from family and friends on parental decisions like when to start weaning your baby, what school you should send them to or how you discipline your child.
But when you’re in the public eye, it can be so much harder to remove yourself from the constant influx of unwelcome comments on all corners of social media.
And one celebrity to come under fire is Kate Hudson, who has divided opinion after letting her daughter use a dummy.
The backlash started around September last year, when the Bride Wars star took to Instagram to share a sweet image of her and her daughter, Rani Rose, in front of a mirror.
Though she was just three years old at the time, commenters appeared to have a problem with the toddler using a dummy.
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One person said: “I don't want to be rude but the kid is by far too old for the pacifier.”
“Get rid of that stupid pacifier,” another rudely echoed, while a third wrote a long comment about their cousin’s supposed experience with braces.
They said: “I have a cousin whose mouth & teeth were affected by overuse of a ‘binky’ for too many years. Braces and the works. Didn’t think his mouth would ever NOT appear to have a binky in it.
“She’s your kid, so it’s not my problem, but she’s WAY too old for that and being an enabler isn’t helpful. Just sayin’.”
However, others quickly came to Kate’s defence - stating that she is more than capable of making her own parental decisions for her child.
“It's her child not any of your children.” one person wrote, while another added: “People will never stop trying to tell other people how to parent. Must be nice to be so perfect!”
"Every pediatrician I’ve talk to said that it doesn’t start to harm them until about age 5 and that’s just their teeth. Leave her alone." someone else said.
Since then, Kate hasn’t appeared to post any more images of her daughter, who turned four last week, using a dummy.
Tyla has contacted a representative of Kate Hudson for comment.
From a medical perspective, whilst prolonged dummy use can sometimes be attributed to ‘language delays’, ‘middle ear infections, tummy infections, chest infections and thrush in the mouth’, according to the NHS, they do also note that the item can be ‘protective’ against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) when used at every sleep during the day and night.
But no matter what age you decide to take away your child’s dummy, that is your decision as a parent to make - no one else’s.