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Jamie Oliver's wife Jools defended by fans as photo of son River sparks debate

The doting parents share five children

jools oliver jamie
Diane Shipley
Senior Online Writer
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Jools Oliver shared a photo of her youngest son River to social media on Sunday, and it prompted a conversation she might not have been expecting!

The snapshot showed the three-year-old standing outside by what appeared to be an outdoor children's climbing wall.

SEE: Buddy Oliver's messy cooking hack has fans talking

He was barefoot and wore blue terry cloth shorts with a matching top that featured a rainbow stripe design.

The little boy also sucked on his thumb as he looked into the camera. His doting mum captioned the sweet photo: "Morning River Rocket Rainbow," adding rainbow, sun, and heart emojis.

WATCH: Jools Oliver marks 21st wedding anniversary with the most hilarious clip

The children's designer's followers were quick to share their love for the picture, with their comments including: "Rainbow, terry cloth and River… I mean, a happy Sunday xxxx."

MORE: Relive Jamie Oliver and wife Jools' fairytale wedding on 21st anniversary

SEE: 13 of Jamie and Jools Oliver's adorable family photos

Another added: "That is the cutest outfit ever… when did he get so tall."

river oliver sucking thumb© Photo: Instagram

Jools shared the sweet photo of her youngest son to Instagram 

Other fans stuck up for the mum-of-five following a comment that suggested little River shouldn't be allowed to suck his thumb at his age.

Sweetly, they included her husband Jamie's mum Sally, who wrote a supportive message to her daughter-in-law.

The heartfelt note read: "Jools, that person who was judgemental about the thumb-sucking is not a real person if you look at their profile, they must just be a troll, just ignore and delete. Anyway, Jamie sucked his thumb for years and it hasn’t done him any harm (and he probably still does when stressed)."

jamie oliver jools sons smiling© Photo: Instagram

Jools and Jamie are devoted parents to five children

Jools received more support from other followers, with one responding: "Ignore Jools, people like this are not worth your time & energy… Be proud of your beautiful thumb-sucking boy."

A couple more chimed in with words of encouragement, writing: "I still suck my thumb and I’m 51," and: "Any child that works out how to self-soothe is a genius."

Another wrote simply: "Beautiful and happy...which is all that matters." Hear hear!

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