Video of Jeremy Roloff tickling his baby daughter sparks outrage online

Dangerous, or an old wives' tale?

(Instagram @jeremyroloff

Fans of the show Little People, Big World were overjoyed when Jeremy Roloff and his wife Audrey welcomed their baby daughter Ember to the world in September - but one seemingly innocent video posted by the couple has enraged some.

The couple, who have posted numerous photos of their newborn daughter on social media, have received an outpouring of well-wishers and praise for their ability to adapt to parenthood so quickly.

But a clip Audrey posted to her Facebook page of her husband playing with Ember has led to an unexpected online backlash.

In the video, which Audrey captioned “These two are my favorite,” Jeremy tickles baby Ember as the newborn giggles delightedly.

With a big smile on her face, even reaching towards her dad’s face at one point, the video seems to be nothing more than an adorable display of affection between a father and his young daughter.

But the 12-second clip, which has been viewed over 45,000 times, was enough to incite furious responses from parents - who claim that tickling is the worst thing you can do to a newborn.

One person commented, “You are not supposed to tickle a baby. Ask your doctor.”

Another wrote, “NOT a good idea to tickle a child. It renders them absolutely HELPLESS with a natural uncontrollable response of laughter. There are much better and more healthy ways to make a baby laugh!”

Others insisted that tickling a baby could lead to developmental problems later on.

One woman wrote, “Don’t tickle babies. It will make them stutter. It hurts their nervous system. Think what it does to you if someone holds your arms and tickles you.”

And one commenter shared her own memories of tickle torture, stating: “I remember being tickled as a child and I remember that I hated it. This family is awesome but the point being made is to do research on the effects of tickling. I could not catch my breath enough to say stop and the tickler would not stop. It was torturous. Sometimes I would actually get tears in my eyes and thought I was going to die from being tickled.”

However, despite the numerous comments condemning tickling a baby, it doesn’t appear that tickling can be harmful at all.

According to Dr Laura A Jana, who told Babble, “This is a myth, as tickling is not the cause of stuttering.”

It looks like parents can continue to tickle their babies.