Hayley Matthews: It would be potty not to use green nappies

The total cost of keeping a baby in Nappies for the first two years is estimated to be around Â£800. Picture: Getty

However, I really want to do things differently this time and whilst I realise there are many things that I can’t change, I do want to do my best to limit my impact on the environment. I’m sure you’ve read my eco rants before as I’m very passionate about limiting our carbon footprint so the thought of going through up to 12 disposable nappies a day, each taking around 500 years to biodegrade, fills me with utter fear.

I’ve researched about the chemicals in nappies, along with how harmful disposables are to the environment and decided we’d go back to how our parents did it, with the reusable ones. Now, before you worry about me describing scraping “Timothy White” down the pan whilst dashing to a bucket let me explain.

Hayley Matthews: Banking on bottle plan to cut piles of plastic waste

The doors to the Sikh temple suffered smoke damage. Picture: PA

It’s changed a lot and once I did my research, I realised it’s easier than ever. After all, there’s nothing worse than seeing a used soggy nappy that’s missed the bin, at the side of the pavement, is there?

Mr Hayley took some convincing but he came round once I filled his head with facts like:

Approximately eight million disposable nappies are thrown into landfill each day in the UK alone (That’s three billion a year!). Across the world everyday 6000 tonnes of disposable nappies are being thrown away.

And the one that I think sold the deal for Mr Hayely is that a baby will use up to 5000 disposable nappies compared to 15 reusable nappies a year. Buying 15 nappies instead of 5000 made his ears prick up.

He’s admitted himself that he’s a “tight teuchtar” so anything that saves on the pennies is welcome in our household.

I always ask mums for their advice as I find their word-of mouth-recommendations far more reliable than being enticed by a huge advertising campaign. I’d read a lot of mums online raving about Bambino Mio reusables and they seem easy enough to find in the shops.

There’s a Miosolo nappy which does the baby from birth to three-four years and I like the sound of that. No more running to the shops in the middle of the night for a pack of Pampers!

So as long as I stay on top of my washing (I genuinely love washing clothes) then I think I can do this. Actually, I think the majority of us can.

In the first four months alone with an average of 12 nappies a day at a cost of about 13p per nappy, us parents spend just under £200 in the first few months – and they can’t even say mamma yet!

Nappy spending gets into the thousands by the time we’re talking potty training and quite frankly, I’d rather spend those pennies on sushi and wine.

There’s clearly been a rise in the demand for new parents looking to avoid disposables. I like the fact that Bambino Mio are a UK family business from Northamptonshire, meaning I’m not using a product that’s been made in China and flown half way around the world.

I’m excited about doing something different and hopefully more eco-friendly this time round. I’m determined that baby number two will have the greenest bottom ever! After all, the planet will belong to our wonderful children one day.

Hate must not triumph after temple attack

To say I’m disgusted at the recent firebomb attack on the Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sahib in Leith is an understatement.

When will people realise that religion, skin colour, race and gender are all irrelevant and that we just need to start being a bit more accepting of one another.

Singling out a group of people for an attack based purely on their beliefs is outdated, intolerant and narrow-minded. It’s heart-breaking that in this day and age we still see innocent beautiful souls having to deal with hate-crime, attacks of violence and random outbursts from Neanderthal xenophobes.

I have hope for our children, however, as my son recently came home from school to learn about what an amazing person Guru Nanak was and was excited to tell me all about the founder of Sikhism.

He set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness and virtue – so how wonderful that these are the traits being shown by the community of Leith in a time of need.

I’m relieved to see the Leith and wider Edinburgh community, come together to show support to those who need it most just now in the aftermath of the attack and I hope regardless of your religion or beliefs you’ll join me in sending sympathies to the Edinburgh Gurdwara in Leith.

If there were more accepting and loving communities in the world, just like the Leith and Edinburgh community, then maybe hate, resentment and aversion towards our fellow humans would be a thing of the past.

Believe in Santa, tune out the news

My six-year old has recently been showing an interest in watching the news and has had a million questions about the world, the people who run it (or try to), incidents in the area and much more.

I could see it filling his mind with worry and I believe six is too young to take on the weight of the world.

It got me thinking about how old I was when I first realised the world wasn’t full off unicorns and candy floss. I have to admit, it was much later than six.

I remember some horrific incidents from the early 90s in the news but wasn’t fully aware of “the bad things” until well into my teens. I’m all for kids being aware of the world and it’s happenings as I think its very important. However, I hope you don’t blame me for trying to spin out the fairlytale a little bit longer. I still sugar coat most things for my six-year-old: family break-ups, elderly loved ones’ illnesses and the general troubles of daily life.

We still have the excitement of Santa and the tooth fairy so I suppose when the reality of those characters comes to light then that will be the time to reveal some of the harsh realities of the world. I believe that as parents we need to show our children that the world is a wonderful place. However, bringing in reality is a hard balance that I’m sure every parent will relate to.