I cannot believe the really awful feeding facilities out there...

[EdieMcredie]

Thought Boots would be really good but no, they just have a changing room with grotty chair. Am I being really fussy to not want to breastfeed my child next to a bin full of dirty nappies? And it's not just breastfeeding I wouldn't want to do in these rooms-I would feel equally unhappy about giving a bottle.

We don't eat in the loo so why expect our babies to?

Mothercare is better but a room with two chairs in? Come on, 5 or 6 would be more realistic.

Im going to write a letter. After all, I have spent well over £200 in Boots since my DD was born.

i havent used a feeding room since dd1 was tiny. well i wil lamdit to using the john lewis one with dd3 once, it was lovely.
my favourite 'feeding room' is muffin break/costas

exactly hatricks.

i love people watching whilst breastfeeding. or if the dd3 would've left me (not often) read a magazine whilst feeding.

Yes that's fair enough but some women don't feel comfy doing it in public or feel all fingers and thumbs at first. It's not fair. I just can't believe the amount of money these places get out of parents and cannot even provide a separate room to feed FGS.

Selfridges is the best I have ever come across [useless info there]. Debenhams was horrible, same problem with nappies, plus the local one is just ridiculously designed; take your buggy down a small corridor to find at the end 2 doors, one left, one right; the left-hand side for a tiny little changing/feeding cupboard, the right hand side for the loo. Luckily they do have a large and very pleasant cafe to feed in. What got me was that Debenhams was trumpeting its 'babyfriendly' award by some hopeless magazine. I've reached the point where if anything is recommended by a parenting magazine I'll actively avoid it.

ooooo actually, i remember an awful feeding room. it was at my old workplace. it has a fold down chair and a friggin shower curtain. i left there in 2001, and its still bloody there.

safeways/morrisons wgc, you have shite feeding facilities.

The galleria upstair feeding room/changing room stinks and no actual roo mto breastfeed. i remember trying to feed in there after changing dd1 nappy, giving up as had people tripping over dd's buggy as no room to move, and settling to feed her on a bench in the shopping centre.

tesco local to us, has 2 chairs next to the nappy bin
I hate feeding rooms a always too small and boring. I sit in corner of cafe and have also sat in the middle of the shopping centre on the benches. I know its not easy to feed in public. I have brought a few feeding tops and they are helpful

But yes, your right to not want to feed in that room!!

john lewis, debenhams and mothercare have nice ones.

Good, glad others agree with me

Thought it might just be me.

Im def going to write now. Yes Debenhams is also on my hit list.

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Afraid that I'm with MotherFunk on this one. Why should they provide us with feeding rooms? I spend loads of money in Tesco, but I don't expect them to provide me with a kitchen to cook it in! It really is the same principle, yet you are choosing to complain to those who have provided somewhere, albeit not to most women's standard, rather than to those places that haven't provided anywhere? Weird .

what is wrong with debenhams? our one has a nice feeding room separate to the baby changing room. i always use it.

I think its perfectly reasonable to expect a shop that relies on mothers for a significant portion of its profit to provide a decent feeding room. To me its the same principle as providing baskets, trolleys and sturdy wheelchairs - if you want people to shop with you then you should enable them to have a comfortable shopping time.

Providing a kitchen would be unnecessary because you don't need to cook while you shop. You may need to eat, that's why they provide cafes (I know that gives a profit angle but a study once found out many large retail chains would provide cafes even if they only broke even on them - because it attracts customers).

Fair point I suppose about why trash the shops that have got one, but it is frustrating when you do go to a shop, and spend money there, and they advertise themselves as being good for new parents, and show evidence of not having thought through what was required at all.

I fed my baby in a changing room when nothing else suitable was available - in a man's dept, at that! Staff were quite happy about that, though I guess on a busy day they might not be so keen.

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i would be happy with just a chair to sit on. i cannot feed my baby standing up and holding loads of bags. its unrealistic to not go out when baby needs feeding - mine is very unpredictable.

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I suppose if the shop or wherever is boasting about how family-friendly it is, then it's not unreasonable to expect at least a clean simply furnished room. If the place is making no such boast, then it would be unreasonable to moan.

FWIW, I fed my dd (aged about 10wks) in the front seat of my car whiilst it was parked at a service station since there was no 'mother and baby room' available in the services itself (no, I didn't complain to Forte or whoever it is ran it). It was only when I put her back in her carseat that I realised that a car full of young men had pulled up next to me - I'm still not sure if they didn't notice me or were politely ignoring what was going on!! I wasn't going to see them again anyway.

A lot of people would like a room or private area in which to change a baby's nappy. I for one preferred to do this in private for my daughter's sake as well as my own. Nappy-changing ain't a spectator sport .

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I can just imagine one woman bf-ing a baby whilst another changes a nappy next to her . I can see why she might object in those circs. I think I'd have mentioned it to the manager if I was really bothered about the shop facilities though.