to use a disabled toilet if I've got the buggy?

[MrsHelsBels74]

Pretty much as the thread title says, if you're out in public & need to loo but can't fit the buggy into a normal cubicle is it acceptable to take the buggy into the disabled toilet? I'd never use a disabled parking space but did this today in desperation. So, is it ok or still a no-no?

Thank goodness for that piglet, the world wold be a boring place.

I couldn't use the toilet properly whilst holding a baby, and changing a tampon would be impossible. How would you manage to manover? especially to put stuff in the sanitary bin?

Also, another contradictory thing from mumsnet, there was uproar about people potentially not washing their hands after using the loo. But we're now expected to take baby and hold baby with the same hands we're drying ourselves with and removing and putting in sanitary products in with.

So basically, some people of mumsnet are ok with toilet germs, and leaving a child untended, as long as it means you're not using the unoccupied disabled loo.

Peeing's the easy bit, EasilyBored.

It's sorting out the knickers and trousers afterwards that quite literally tripped me up and had me sprawled on the toilet floor clutching DS to my chest. Luckily he was fine, but I'm not trying it again.

ah I see i crossposted with a million posts!

Instead of bickering amongst yourselves, why not put all that energy and collective Mumsnet power into a campaign to get major shops to set up proper baby changing facilities with loos specially for parents?

If you were disabled you would still need to wait until the other person has finished before using the toilet, in a supermarket it can get urpte busy

Thanks mymate

Really the only times I have used the disabled toilet and no other suitable was with my Autistic dd who waits fr te last minute to go and who hates the confined cubicles

Out of interest my (ex)BIL sometimes uses the disabled toilets as when he takes the 2 DDs out (4 and a young 6) he can't take them in the ladies, they aren't always able to go alone (4 yr old cant wipe properly) and he can't take them in gents with urinals.

So until people catch up with modern family set-ups and make all toilets unisex and accessible is he wrong to use the disabled and wwyd in his situation? Genuine question!

Again, I appreciate juggling a baby is challenging, I doubt it is as challenging as being disabled though. If you are genuinely super duper desperate, then clearly your need is urgent. As a disabled person, of course I would not want you to piss yourself in a shopping centre. I just wonder how many people genuinely do have an urgent need when they use the disabled toilet.

Softly When I was little, I used to go in the toilet with my dad. He just whisked me into a cubicle and out again.

softly, theres always at least one cubicle in the gents... just double checked with my 12 yr old ds.
What if a man needs a shit?
Little boys cant reach urinals

Your BIL is being ridiculous , why can't he take them into the Gents?

good god this is becoming an epic

like ive said the disabled toilets are always empty when ive needed a public loo

and as for the national campaign to get mother and kids facilities, really i do think parents with young kids are pretty well catered for eg parking, adapted child friendly shops, child friendly restaurants etc

i didnt realise this subject was so passionate

NOT EVERYONE WHO NEEDS TO USE A DISABLED TOILET HAS MOBILITY PROBLEMS.

Yes, ok, 9 years AFTER my epilepsy diagnosis I have been dxd with mobility problems, but for the previous years, I would not have had mobility issues yet still NEEDED to use the disabled toilet.

Should I wait to use the only SAFE toilet for me because someone is scared of taking their baby into the cubicle with them leaving the pram outside, or is scared to leave their child in the pram for the few seconds it takes to have a wee?

Simply because I didn't have obvious mobility problems?

no way do i want unisex toilets

Should I wait to use the only SAFE toilet for me because someone is scared of taking their baby into the cubicle with them leaving the pram outside, or is scared to leave their child in the pram for the few seconds it takes to have a wee?

You won't like my answer, but yes.

You can wait, you're a grown adult. Babies shouldn't be left outside on their own. In the public toilets I've seen the pram would have to be left a good few metres from the cubicle too.

(And I have bladder issues which predate both my disability diagnoses, and before my epilepsy diagnosis, it would never have occurred to me to use the disabled toilets, no matter how desperate I was, not even when I had two under two in a double buggy.)

X-post. So it's better for a disabled person who CAN'T access the Ladies loo to wet themselves than it is for a fit able person to have to make a few compromises when they need a wee?

Great, good to know where the disabled stand, then.

Just where they always do, Couthy.

Babies before people with disabilities..? Even when they are other safe options for the babies? I would never want to put a baby in a vulnerable position but there are safe options.

Couthy - who's saying they have to wet themselves? No-one said that. Your issue was with the waiting, you didn't mention you might wee yourself.

And stop trying to make it into some sort of conspiracy against the disabled, it isn't at all. It's just using a bit of common sense and all being decent people, not denying anyone help who needs it.

But anyway, lets force the mother with twin babies to try and have a wee and do whatever else whilst balacing a baby on her knee, whilst also not tryin to touch the babies with the hands she's wiped herself with.
Or leave them outside, meters away, where anything could happen.

Because god forbid she went in the empty disabled loo, where they would all be safe. Just in case a disabled person turned up and had to wait a minute or so.

Tis a shame because I know my friends with disabilities would have no issues, they'd rather she didn't put her children at risk.

Crash doll what are the safe options?

I NEVER would have considered that, when I had my older DC's.

I did what everyone else did, and wedged the door open with the pram. Strangely no women were interested in peering in at me weeing, nobody stole my children, and I didn't suffer anything fatal by having to have the door open a bit.

The idea that having a baby is in ANY way comparable to being UNABLE or UNSAFE to use the ladies loo is staggeringly breathtakingly entitled, to me.

You don't become disabled because you have had a baby. It doesn't suddenly stop your arms, legs or brain from working. I can't see why mums are acting like it would be horrifying to leave the door slightly ajar when they use a public loo, or leave their baby in their buggy outside the cubicle.

How do you think your own mums used public loos? Either they had bladders of steel or they left you outside...Christ, I'm only 31, and when I was little people didn't even take prams into the shops, they left the prams and babies outside.

Do you REALLY think that having a baby means you should use the disabled toilets?! REALLY?!

Holding the baby, a sling, if you have a travel system, put the carseat on the floor in the cubicle. I admit, they are difficult options but not impossible. It is impossible for a wheelchair user to use a non-accessible toilet.