Amazed at lack of changing facilities!!

[tuckie82]

I am lucky enough to have travelled to various places in the UK this summer and I still cant get my head around the lack of usable baby changing facilities! I like to go with my baby to locally run cafes and restaurants as I am a firm believer in supporting the local communities but it becomes impossible when they simply don't provide any where to change your baby! Something needs to be done as it makes me so depressed to think I can only ever go to big chains with children!

I just put the change mat on the floor in the bathroom and change DD there. Not ideal, but manageable.

Surely so long as there's a toilet you can change them? I'd never ever consider changing facilities when choosing where to go. If they exist then it's a bonus!

You have legs don't you? Change the baby over your knee. Baby changes didn't use to exist at all, everyone managed fine. I don't use them.

I hate it, most baby changes even if clean are super smelly. I put my change mat on the back seat of my car and change baby there when I'm out and about as I hate using baby changes and she's still small. But far too big to do it on my knee as PP said! She was 99th percentile!!

You can change a baby anywhere. The lack of facilities for older children and adults is a much more severe problem.

But far too big to do it on my knee as PP said! She was 99th percentile!!

I can change a 2 year old on my knee, so I doubt your baby was that big.

I agree even worse though when you have a fully grown adult who has profound disabilities to change.

Still doable on the knee with a baby on the 99th percentile thing. I say this as a short arse.

Yes there's something that needs doing for adults with disabilities.
The amount of places we have visited that tell us they are very good facilities only to find out not, is shocking. The awesome facilities boil down to either a toilet with rails or a baby table. Nothing to hoist a teen or older. Although one place said here use the first aid room - erm and how we going to lift? Never mind how we going to navigate the steps even though there was only 4 steps.

If there are no baby changing facilities then I lie the pushchair flat, put the changing mat down on it, and change the baby in the pushchair or I do it on my knee (DS2 was in nappies until a couple of months after his 3rd birthday and I was still changing him on my knee).

As others have said, the lack of facilities for changing older children and adults is of more concern. The baby years are fleeting, you use the baby change for - what? - two to three years per child? And a baby/toddler is small enough to fit on a fold up changing mat if you do need to use the floor so that your child doesn't need to come into contact with a toilet floor. How many of those mats do you think you'd need to stop a 13yo or a 19yo or a 49yo coming into contact with the floor?

Changing babies on the floor isn't possible sometimes if you have health issues or disabilities. I end up skipping meals if I'm out for the day and can't find a changing table or other raised surface because trying to do it on the floor within a couple of hours of eating makes me very unwell. It must be a right nuisance for parents with disabilities who literally can't use the floor.

Are people on here for real or what?

Use the floor? Over your knee?

It's the 21st century not the fucking Victorian age.

Of course there should be proper facilities.

FFS!
Parents have managed to change nappies since time immemorial! You need a baby changer? WHY??

Your right archaic the lack of proper bathrooms and wheelchair access oh and drinking water! I understand some buildings are over 200 years old but times and needs have changed.

I always used one of these:

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B071FBPP7H/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504659724&sr=8-2-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=portable+changing+mat&psc=1&tag=mumsnetforum-21

Having twins we also always carried portable high chairs (the kind that attach to dining table chairs) because loads of cafes and restaurants only have one high chair.

I suppose it depends on which area if the country you are in but I tended to find that independent cafes had better changing facilities than chains.

There are three independent cafes in my home town and they all have changing tables with free nappies and wipes supplied, as does our local church.

The library has a changing table too.

Improvise adapt and overcome. There is always a way to do it, facilities are a nice to have but not crucial.

I used to change mine on the back seat of the car. Nicer than a grotty public toilet.

I'd end up with shite all over me if I tried to change my wriggler on my knee

Some people think they are owed a medal for changing a baby on their knees.

I think the lack of appropriate facilities are a disgrace in many places in this country in the 21st century.

I think it's disgusting that we're often expected to change our babies on the floor, even with a changing mat.

I also hate it when the changing facility is a fold down table in the ladies toilet communal area. Everyone queuing and washing their hands and applying lipstick can see, hear and smell your baby, which I think is very inappropriate. What about if your DH is alone with your baby and needs to change it, is he allowed into this area in the women's toilet to change the baby?

It's also really awful and unfair when they combine the disabled toilet and baby changing space. Both users are likely to take a while using the facility, and it's really unfair on one and other to have to share, especially when there's usually only one of these types of rooms available.

PurpleTango. Why does the OP want a baby changer? Probably because it's convenient, which it is.

Who do people expect to pay for all these "facilities"

I think we used changing facilities twice with our kids because we were in a place that had them. If not just do what people have done since time began (but with th elixirs of a changing mat, wipes, disposable nappy, nappy bag etc etc)

Bloody hell, it's a good job some of you aren't 20 years older, or 50, or 200,or living in most of the rest of the world - your kids would constantly be covered in shit.

I think we've grown accustomed to a degree of convenience. I travelled abroad with my DD to other countries with no concept of baby changing facilities ( in Europe) and you just have to get on with it.

Imagine what is like when your child becomes a teenager and you still having to change them lying down but they won't even fit on the toilet floor.

It's the 21st century? my word we have got used to the world bending over backwards for us haven't we?!

Sticking baby on your knee to change them really isnt a massive hardship. Stop being so entitled!

Wanting to support local is great. Demanding that they use a large amount of their (probably tiny) profit and (usually seriously limited) space for something that will probably get used 5 times a day at most when there are other, workable and acceptable, options is not exactly supportive though is it?!