Joe Wicks criticised for holding baby daughter with one hand in 'risky' Instagram photo

Fitness influencer Joe Wicks, also known as the ‘Body Coach’, has been criticised online after sharing a photograph of himself balancing his 10-month-old daughter in one hand.

The divisive image was taken while holidaying in Costa Rica with his girlfriend Rosie Jones and their daughter Indie.

He captioned the Instagram post: “My dad used to balance me in his hand like this when I was a baby”.

But the snap left a large number of the 32-year-old’s 2.1 million Instagram followers unimpressed.

“You’re in a foreign country, on the beach, miles away from anywhere you could get medical assistance,” one wrote [sic]. “If you have dropped her God forbid, even worse on her head, what would’ve you done?”

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“You would not have posted this picture on Instagram to begin with, and at worst ended up in the hospital. And for what reason? To get some likes on Instagram? Was it truly worth the risk?”

Another agreed, adding [sic]: “Joe may not see the risk the same way as everyone else so may be prepared to take more risk because he doesn’t assess it the same way as someone else.”

“But with a kid, because they have no means of assessing the risk, I think it’s important to be more risk averse than if it was yourself taking the risk alone and I’m not sure he’s taken that route here.”

While others were quick to defend Wicks with many reminiscing about how their parents did the same when they were youngsters.

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“Give the guy a break,” one social media user wrote.

“He has one hand free to catch Indie if she falls and the hand that he’s holding her with, you can clearly see he has a great grip on her little tootsies – not to mention he trains well so he’s strong enough to hold her. Let them share a wonderful moment.”

“People need to lighten up,” another commented. “Indie clearly has your core strength.”

One user added, “My dad used to do this all the time with me – I used to feel on top of the world!”

What do you make of the post?

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