A mum has launched a campaign urging a leading supermarket to stock larger nappies for children with additional support needs.
Laura Rutherford’s three-year-old son Brody has a condition which means he is not yet toilet trained.
He is currently wearing size six plus nappies — the largest size on sale — but will soon grow out of them.
Posting on Tesco’s Facebook page, Laura, 29, said there was a “huge gap in the market” for affordable larger nappies, as those sold online are “hugely overpriced”.
Brody has global development delay, hypotonia, hyper-mobility and epilepsy and is a long way off being toilet trained.
Laura, from Bonnybridge, Falkirk, wrote to Tesco: “I wondered if you would pretty please consider doing a larger size of your nappies (beyond 6+) for children with additional support needs (ASN) or bigger children who are later to potty train.
“My son is nearly four and is disabled. He currently wears your 6+ nappies, which are great, but they are getting too small.
“When you’ve got a child with additional support needs they, at some stage, get referred to a continence service and receive nappies; however, there is often a huge wait to receive this service and once you do, you receive a limited amount of nappies.
“Nappies that you can buy online, and largely not in supermarkets, aimed at children with continence issues are hugely overpriced, much like many products in ASN market.
“There are a lot of us out there with this problem and a huge gap in the market. Every little helps.”
Tesco’s initial response suggested Laura try pull ups which cost £5 for nine – but these are for children who have bladder control and are potty training.
Laura replied to the supermarket firm and told them the cost of these nappies was “overpriced”, and she would prefer to see Tesco stock larger sizes of their own brand nappies.
She added: “They offer quality nappies at a competitive decent price – I usually buy two packs of 34 I think for £8.”
Tesco then issued a further response through Facebook to the mum of two, saying they would feedback her suggestion and “senior teams” would look into it.
Laura’s post received a huge amount of support – with more than 700 likes and 127 comments from fellow parents struggling to find affordable nappies for their children.
She said: “There are brands such as Libero, which you can buy online but these cost around £7.35 for 21. To be able to go to a supermarket and buy a larger size would be great.”
A spokesman for Tesco spokesman said: “We’re always listening to customers to understand which products they’d like to see in our stores.
“Whilst there are no immediate plans to stock a size seven nappy we will continue to speak to our customers to understand which ranges should be stocked in future.”
