Shared disability toilets with baby changing facilities

Or they could put a changing table in both female and male toilets.

If they're going to put a changing table in the disabled toilet they could at least make it accessible to people in wheelchairs who need to change their babies.

Honestly sometimes changing the baby can take ages. Cooing and chatting to the baby doesn't mean I'm taking my sweet time, it means i am keeping the baby from screaming!!!!

It sucks op and sorry this happened

I guess space is usually the issue a lot of places can’t have a baby room and a disabled room

but some plates that’s not the issue - my local shopping mall shares the space and the main toilets are tiny - I go there with my toddler and baby and if I need to use the toilet we can’t really all fit in a normal cubicle - I end up having to take us all in the disabled toilet which I’d rather not do

it also happened me at Dublin airport recently no separate baby changing area or family type toilet - I was travelling alone with 2 kids so what option do I have other than leave my toddler alone outside the cubicle

I once had to change my daughter on the floor of Dublin airport toilets as my daughter had a nappy explosion - poo everywhere me and her covered and the shared disabled and baby change area was being used

Thank you, I just put my shopping down and left, the worst part for me was then having to get in the car and drive home wondering how I wasn't going to ruin my car seat. It's awful isn't it, humiliating. Endometriosis is horrific but after multiple surgeries I have been lucky enough to have a baby and get my pain under control for the majority of the time.

Unfortunately I was in a shop that didn't have any customer toilets, superdrug to be exact. I think it's awful that shops are allowed to have no toilets available for the public to be honest, when you have trouble with urgency the fact that there are just no toilets available at all actually puts me off going to shops. Which limits me to supermarkets and shopping centres.

I've had the same problem though not as embarrassing when my baby has had a poosplosion and there are no toilets in the shop so I've just had to change her in the pram with my back to the wall and hope for the best. I would like to see it made mandatory for any business premises serving the public to have at least one toilet.

Whether it's reasonable to have a combined facility is down to the size of the venue/footfall. Combined disabled toilet and baby change does make sense in many settings and offers older toddlers/ children some privacy if still in nappies. I really needed the space for dc as she was in nappies then having frequent accidents for ages (asd).

In a perfect world we all get our required loos but we need to be sensible of space allocated. In large venues you are spot on op but not the local pub with only 3 toilets

Yes those ones are the best design. The separate changing area without a toilet in is problematic and doesn’t always solve the problem, I’ve had to get permission from staff in a few occasions to use the disabled toilet as otherwise my dd couldn’t use the toilet as she’s too young to be able to go in the ladies by herself (and too small to get onto a full size toilet by herself), but my babies pram doesn’t fit in a standard so the only option was to use the disabled toilet anyway.

It works well to solve the OP issue though. The baby changing facility is removed from the accessible toilet - allowing for the baby to be changed while someone else uses the toilet.

Best I saw was a baby changing and feeding area with a separate toddler toilet cubicle and an adult toilet cubicle. Feeding area also had a curtain around it as it was a unisex area. Whoever designed that one understood the struggles of babies, toddlers, small children and changing / feeding in public

This was the argument when disposable nappies were introduced, are they still using it?

This only works if there’s a toilet in the baby change room. Some I’ve been to have and some haven’t, but if they haven’t then parents still have to use a bigger toilet cubicle as a pram doesn’t fit in a standard size toilet cubicle. Even worse if you have a baby and a toddler with you!

Alot of places are now designing the baby changing facilities out of the accessible toilet I've noticed. My local supermarket has a separate baby changing room, accessible toilet and ladies/gents toilets.

For the first 3 years of DS life this was the advice I received from HV and doctors, that if I do it before he's ready he'll be at risk of all of the above.

Then at his 3 year checkup the HV said why haven't you started potty training yet and I said oh we kept trying but he wasn't getting it and wasn't showing any signs of readiness to which she said: why are you waiting for signs of readiness, that's a myth, they don't need to wait until they're showing signs of readiness.

DS is autistic and was diagnosed at 3 and a half so even if I had tried sooner and ignored advice theres no guarantee he would have been toilet trained anyway, but the changing advice felt practically overnight.

I've been on a few ERIC webinars since for kids with autism and the advice even there is very contradictory. Always change in the bathroom so they associate the bathroom with where to go, but don't change them in the bathroom if they've got sensory issues with bathrooms, take them out of nappies completely so they learn they have to go somewhere, except if they'll only go in nappies and then do not under any circumstances force them to withhold, always be consistent and lead the charge, but always give them autonomy and be flexible if it isnt working, don't wait for signs of readiness just create a routine unless your child is PDA and then the expectation of using the bathroom might become too stressful.

It feels to me like whatever you do or don't do, you can't do right for wrong.

Sorry, I know this is a slight derail and very much a rant, and appreciate that DS is SEN and therefore the approach was always going to be a bit different, but I just feel flustered about the advice that always seems to change and at the time of its delivery always seems to be "the correct advice" until something else comes along to debunk it.

What age are you expecting? Too early is associated with UTIs, constipation issues and increased daytime wetting until an older age than children who are potty trained when they show signs of readiness. Those accidents then still need changing and until a later age.

There is also the argument that disposable nappies make kids harder to potty train leading to them needing nappies longer and so the cycle continues. Surely getting them out of nappies as quickly as possible is the best thing to do and then there are less people needing to block up the disabled toilets
changing nappies.

Couldn't agree more, I've had to change my baby in a changing table next to the sinks and it was awful, several people trying to coo at her and talk to her while she was half naked made me really uncomfortable.

Re baby changing in hand wash bit being undignified.

If you're changing a baby at a height, getting in the way of sinks and watching a toddler at the same time plus there's a pram around, you're basically taking over the whole place.

And many babies/toddlers would hate being seen. And many people would hate being confronted with the sight and smell of a poopy child.

I have four kids and I hate that the baby change and disabled toilet are so often combined. I always try to change a nappy as quickly as possible because I hate the idea that there might be someone who needs the facility waiting outside. I also cooed and chatted to my babies while changing their nappies. The cooing doesn’t slow down the process. However, if someone had knocked and said they were desperate I would probably have brought my baby out half dressed. Nappy changes can take time though if there’s been leakage onto clothing or you have an uncooperative baby, I don’t think this the fault of the mother that you had to wait it’s the fault of our society that doesn’t prioritise facilities for disabled people.

Technically an adult can shit wherever they want as well, that doesn’t mean it’s any more or less socially acceptable than changing a nappy out in a cafe or the middle of a shop.
The majority of nappy wearers are not tiny newborns.

@verysmellyjelly you don't want to continue discussing the topic with someone who actually understands and lives it then? You just want to accuse me of derailing for proving you wrong in your accusations and the crime of disagreeing with you?

I will point out all of my posts are about the topic at hand so are not detailing the thread at all. You're just pulling that one out the hat because you're annoyed I'm not the clueless ableist you made me out to be.

Btw I'm not embarrassed because I don't have a lack of empathy. I care about everyone in society. I think you're embarrassed for getting your accusations wrong.