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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

...to think you should be able to leave a dirty nappy in a bin in a baby changing room?

56 replies

Icantstopeatinglol · 08/04/2013 09:29

Just wondering if anyone else is coming across this more often? I've been to two recently where there's a sign asking if dirty nappies can be taken away/home/elsewhere etc as it is causing a smell. I can see where they're coming from in one way but the last one was in a walk in centre?! I'm not sure all the ill people would have been happy if I'd put the dirty nappy in my changing bag and sat for an hour in the waiting room stinking the place out?!

OP posts:

Scholes34 · 08/04/2013 09:39

Depends on where you are. A whole bin of dirty nappies would probably have to be disposed of as clinical waste, where as a few nappies in your own bin isn't a problem. I assume you would have had an appropriate, slightly perfumed, nappy sack with you and put it in your changing bag?

FeckOffCup · 08/04/2013 09:43

YANBU, baby changing rooms should have clinical waste bins where you can dispose of dirty nappies, I wouldn't want to carry one around all day even if it was in a scented nappy bag. Don't most nappy bins have a lid anyway so you only get a whiff of it when you open the lid to put the nappy in?

BrittaPie · 08/04/2013 09:44

Yanbu. This does my head in. Do they ask people to take used tampons home? No.

Original poster

Icantstopeatinglol · 08/04/2013 09:50

I didn't used to carry nappy bags but I do now after these last couple of visits. To be honest I'm nearly out of the nappy stage with my kids but I don't understand why all of a sudden it's an issue when it's always been the case you change them and put the nappy in a bin in the changing room. If you were in a restaurant and came across this would they expect you to carry the nappy around with you in the restaurant or go looking for an outside bin? I wouldn't be happy if I was sitting eating and could smell a shitty nappy!...extreme case I know but I would be well peed off! Just seems odd that's all.

OP posts:

hairtearing · 08/04/2013 10:03

I have many times hides

MadCap · 08/04/2013 10:07

They do this at my gp's. It boggles my mind. I mean they must have clinical waste disposal.

LovesBeingWokenEveryNight · 08/04/2013 10:11

Because it costs money to have this waste collected

ilovepowerhoop · 08/04/2013 10:15

i'd see if I could cram it into the sanitary towel bin then!

Lemonsole · 08/04/2013 10:24

Clinical waste disposal costs a lot. Poo should always be shaken off and flushed - it's what cloth nappy users have always done, and is no big deal. I find the stench of nappies in public places absolutely revolting, and if everyone dealt with it responsibly, it wouldn't be a problem. We always shook off the poo, and carrying home (mostly) wet nappies is inoffensive and no big deal.

If you can't/ won't deal with your child's poo - why on earth should anyone else? Disposable nappies, IMHO, do too much to make parents feel absolved of any responsibility for their disposal. I don't want my GP spending money on nappy disposal.

ilovepowerhoop · 08/04/2013 10:30

not all baby changing rooms have a toilet so where do you shake the poo? I never put poo from a nappy into a bin as the poo was wiped off with wipes and all bundled together before binning.

5318008 · 08/04/2013 10:32

yes it's a disposal/cost of issue, partic for places run by volunteers like a church toddler group as well as bigger places

Maggie111 · 08/04/2013 10:33

You should always have nappy bags if you have nappies surely?!

No wonder bins stink if people are just putting unwrapped nappies into them.

LeeCoakley · 08/04/2013 10:35

I agree with lemonsole. Cloth nappy users take them away and I'm sure they would have noticed if people were always wrinkling their noses at them in waiting rooms! Put them in a nappy sack and no one will even notice. I bet the problem is that so many people don't bag them up so the smell is unbearable after a few hours.

Lemonsole · 08/04/2013 10:39

It's still all in the bin, though! Wrapped or not, the stench will always escape. Nappy bags aren't the answer, either, as the plastic seems to make them more whiffy.

I've never used a changing room that wasn't close enough to a loo. Or maybe I just sought them out.

Nappies shouldn't be seen as an equivalent need to sanitary waste, as poo can always be flushed, whether in a disposable or cloth, whereas tampons and towels must not be flushed. I do understand that cloth isn't always possible - but hygienic poo disposal is.

Mooncup users should feel smug at this point. Haven't been able to use mine post-prolapse. And miss it.

Lemonsole · 08/04/2013 10:41

Hot changing rooms at the swimming pool after the parent and child classes. Boak.

Original poster

Icantstopeatinglol · 08/04/2013 11:09

Yea that makes sense to flush away the excess but the one I used yesterday didn't have a toilet in it so I'd have to take her into the ladies toilet and try and sort her out standing up. As my dd has a uti at the minute I won't do that as I want to make sure she's totally clean...and I can't/won't lie her on the toilet floor.
I've only had a few occasions when I've thought the rooms stink...they have got dirty nappies in the bin tho so not really a huge surprise.

OP posts:

Lemonsole · 08/04/2013 11:14

That's a one-off - if the general principle of your child's poo = your problem were adhered to by more parents, there would be no problem.

Your DD's UTI didn't stop you taking the nappy home with you, though, did it?

Original poster

Icantstopeatinglol · 08/04/2013 11:28

No but the fact I was sitting in a walk in centre with a lot of poorly people who would have been very unhappy if I'd sat there with a stinking bag did.
I think from now on if there is a toilet I will get rid of excess and put the nappy in the bin (in a nappy bag).
Just seems to be all of a sudden a lot of places doing this now.

OP posts:

DoJo · 08/04/2013 11:29

Hmm - feeling a bit queasy at the idea of trying to 'shake' the poo that my one year old did this morning. Apparently porridge has the same consistency coming out as going in.... That being said, our health visitor clinic always asks you to take your nappies home, and I've never had a problem with it, but then I have never normally got plans directly afterwards so can deposit in my bin fairly swiftly.

Lemonsole · 08/04/2013 11:35

DoJo - as I said earlier - if you find it unsavoury, why on earth should anyone else relish their disposal? Yes - poo is revolting, but it has to be dealt with. Disposables have made us a lot more squeamish, and we can't just pretend that, if it is squashed in the nappy in a bin, it has gone away.

OP: really glad that you're going to limit the poo mountain here on in! You'll be trying cloth before you know it

Original poster

Icantstopeatinglol · 08/04/2013 11:42

To be honest I did consider cloth nappies when I was pg with ds but my mam had such a bad time when I was a baby ie. bad nappy rash sticking to the cloth etc that I decided not to and were currently potty training dd then we'll be nappy free woohoo!!
Definately be more prepared next time! :)

OP posts:

DisorganisednotDysfunctional · 08/04/2013 11:45

No. YANBU. If there's a baby changing room it should have facilities to dispose of nappies. However it's just not practical to empty the bins every 5 minutes, so it's polite to put the nappy in a nappy sack.

Your not expected to take tampons, towels or turds home, are you?

Lemonsole · 08/04/2013 11:46

Turds can - and should- be flushed. Which is kind of the point made up thread.

WhataSook · 08/04/2013 12:45

YANBU I agree that if it's a baby change room there should be facilities to leave a wrapped dirty nappy.

If I wanted to shake poo from a nappy I would use cloth ones.

Lemonsole · 08/04/2013 13:02

So would you be prepared to contribute to the cost of disposing of it? Paying someone else to handle it for you? Why should GPs, Playgroups, preschools pay for you being a bit squeamish? Cloth nappy users don't actually enjoy poo, you know.

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