Shared disability toilets with baby changing facilities

I found them a godsend when I had my ds as I have a disability and could do two birds with one stone so to speak.

I can understand why people find the shared space annoying and there's an argument they should be separate (and I'm sorry you went through what you did op) but disabled people have children too and the changing facilities still need to be in there otherwise what are we to do?

My son is disabled, in nappies and far too big for baby changing. I have to change him on the floor (a whole other thread), in the disabled toilet. I've had people banging on the door to tell me to hurry up, it really makes a stressful situation more stressful, especially when they keep banging despite my call outs. I try to only visit places with changing places toilets which has made our world even smaller.

There’s one accessible, disabled loo in most places. Needing quick access to the loo can be a part of someone’s disability. To suggest that shared facilities aren’t an issue when it limits the availability of the only loo someone is able to use is ridiculous. Drop down changing tables in the men’s and women’s loos would be more sensible.

This has echoes of the entitled mothers who complain about drivers with blue badges using parent and child spaces. One group has protected legal rights designed to improve accessibility so that they can get on with living their lives. The other has ridiculous pushchairs and a sense of entitlement bigger than their 4x4s.

You are right that the baby change shouldn't be in the disabled toilet. However I also think it saves space because dad's change babies too and so either needs to be facilities in the ladies and in the gents, or there is just one in the disabled toilet. There should really be a dedicated baby change facility, and a dedicated disabled toilet.

Some years back I regularly changed a child and periodically took my mother, who had dementia to the toilet. On average, I would say taking my mother took longer and was more complicated to get through the toilet than my son was to change. Yes there should be separate cubicles. However, you might have to wait just as long or longer for a person who needed the disabled toilet just as much as you, so while it would definately be good if baby change was separate, anytime you go to a toilet, not in a private house, you might need to cope with waiting.

Where else do men take small children when they are out?

My mum became disabled just before I had my baby and I've been thinking exactly the same thing. They shouldn't have baby changing in disabled loos.

They should also make sure ordinary loos have enough space for a pram also, the amount of times I've struggled to be able to go to the loo whilst out with my newborn was terrible!

I do appreciate that must have been awful for you, I have had incontinence issues and have wet myself in public before and I understand it is mortifying. But the reality is sometimes there will be a queue for a public toilet facility, obviously that’s difficult if you have urgency and can’t wait but not every awkward situation can be mitigated. In another situation you may have crapped yourself because a disabled person was in the toilet ahead of you, or because the location of the toilet was a little further away than you were able to reach. That is the reality of urgency and it’s awful, but the fact you weren’t able to wait a few minutes for one person ahead of you in the queue still doesn’t mean there is an inherent issue with shared facilities.

Also never experienced such a thing.

My child has a medical condition that means constant diarrhoea, when they were little I had to use the disabled toilet as no other changing area. A change often involved wiping poo off her entire back, legs, stomach and changing her entire outfit. Bagging up the dirty clothes and all the wipes. I usually ended up having to clean the table down too. It wasn’t quick and I clearly remember that feeling of someone banging on the door for me to hurry up when I’m elbow deep in wipes and poo and an uncomfortable child. I hated emerging from the loo with people staring at me or sighing. I would always apologise but they probably assumed I was also taking my sweet time.

There's been loads of threads like this in the past and they always involve 'chatting, cooing or singing nursery rhymes'.

I've never understood it either.

It's just a way of keeping the baby calm during a nappy change. It's not like it slows the process down 🤷‍♂️

Blah blah pregnancy makes you disabled.. blah blah something about being told to fuck off?

Shall I explain it again slowly for you?

Often space doesn't allow for that, and depending on set up it's not appropriate for toddlers to be taken into the men's to use a table in there if there are open urinals.

Can't remember what country it was, but there was a pull-down changing table in the area with the sinks - in both Ladies & Gents.
Seems the obvious solution to me.

There need to be separate spaces for baby change and disabled access - I also wish there were more places with space for a buggy and a loo - so many times when I had a tiny baby I have had to leave early and go home to go to the loo as nowhere I could have a wee and take the pram in!

I remember a M&S store had a sign on the disabled/baby changing toilet also describing it as a baby feeding room. I wrote to them to complain about the implication that women should feed their babies in a toilet and not in their cafe attached. Can't remember what they said about it or if they changed it. I was annoyed about them wanting breastfeeding mothers hiding in a loo.

It is the point. If she had a disability then she may want accessible changing facilities.

Childbirth can cause life changing injuries.

It was perfectly clear to me

Great good on Tesco. Hats off to them.

It’s easier for businesses to combine the disabled toilet with baby change facilities because then their baby change area is unisex and the large space also means that parents can take pushchairs in with them.

It means that people who actually have to use the disabled toilet are waiting around for parents to change their baby and then use the loo themselves before coming out. It’s completely unfair.

Actually having a baby does result in a disabled mother sometimes, my cousin for one.
This toilet was for BOTH disabled and people needing to change babies. I remember one time when my kids were little changing them in one of these loos. Somebody started knocking, then when I told them I'm just changing my babies they started banging on the door demanding I hurry up. When I came out I was told I was a selfish bitch and these toilets are for disabled people by the person pushing the wheelchair. The person in the wheelchair was also angry and complaining about me as well.
I'm still pissed off about it 16 years later.

Clearly not or they wouldn't have been waiting for the accessible facility!