Letter: 'Real' nappies

'Real' nappies

I AM going to have a baby in October (all going well) and find myself in the midst of a baby boom among friends. I have been seriously considering not using disposable nappies. There seem to be some great alternatives about, which don't add to the landfill problems, and would cost less than two years' supply of disposables ("Britain warned of nappy mountain", 21 April).

When I somewhat hesitantly introduce the idea of using "real" nappies the response is universal scorn: "You must be joking ... all that mess ... all that washing." One friend with a three-month-old said: "Stuff the environment, you just want it to be as easy and quick as possible." She went on to suggest that my baby would be worse off in real nappies - suffering nappy rash and leakages, and it would all be a horrendous mess.

It's going to be tough to resist that kind of peer pressure, but I think I'm going to try anyway.

VANYA BODY

Pangbourne,

Berkshire