A man spat at my toddler today and I don’t know what to do

[Pen89ox]

the title might be a bit ott, but it’s what happened, he was doing it to everyone who came out the train station but he was so close to the door you didn’t realise until it was too late. he was doing a weird thing with his mouth making a massive noise and it sprayed his spit everywhere. he was drunk and sat on the floor sadly right at the same level as my 2yo’s face in his pram.

it a might sound dramatic but I’ve wiped his face with a baby wipe and I looked back and the man was just sort of smiling at us and then carried on doing it to other people.

can any awful things be passed via spit? i’m so annoyed that i didn’t avoid him but he was literally was just round a corner so there was no way to know that was happening.

Even drunks, with sound MH, don't think going down to the station to spit at people is a fun way to spend a day.

Of course not. He needs "dealing with", but what do you think the police are going to do? He certainly won't be "locked up". He might be put in a cell to sober up, but that will be about it.

The only way it will stop is if he gets proper support.

So sorry op. Im sure little one will be fine and excellent mummying skills having the anti bac on hand. I’d have been lucky to have baby wipes with me.
i would report though as others have said

Spitting at someone is an assault so I'm not sure why your friend who works with police said nothing can be done.

Often when someone is charged with assaulting a police officer it's due to spitting.

It's legally assault as it can spread diseases such as TB.

That is just so vile.

How awful for you both

Speak to the police, they will know who he is already. Do you feel he behaved in the way he did because you are a woman? Then tell them that.

@50mg

and? So?

So, there's obviously another problem.

Of course it's appalling, but "the police" is not the answer, they wont do anything. These things won't change until we have proper MH facilities

Exactly and the kick would have been directed swiftly to his face, dirty rat.

And it would be perfectly reasonable, but then he'd be back next day...

This has happened a few times to my DD as she’s mixed race but she’s never become poorly from it.
You did the right thing by cleaning their face though just in case.

As this happened in a train station I’d definitely report with a description as chances are there is some CCTV somewhere.
Hopefully other people have complained too.

As a PP said since covid spitting has thankfully been taken way more seriously and hopefully he’ll get some sort of punishment for it.

That sounds absolutely horrendous I’m so sorry to hear that however what a&e told you sounds super reassuring. Did they happen to give you a time frame to watch for anything developing?

@Pen89ox they basically said that there was no need for follow-up/monitoring as the chances of her having got anything from that were minuscule. viruses like HIV, hepatitis etc don't survive as well in saliva as they do in other bodily fluids such as blood or semen so it's much less likely it can be transmitted. I pretty much knew that myself but was still a very tense 24 hours until we got the all clear from the A&E doctor!

How revolting

def report to the police and get the wee one checked over x

I had an incident recently where I was spat at amongst other things, the Police said its classed as common assault

WTH is wrong with you 🤷🏼‍♀️

I'm sure with that kind of behaviour he must be known to police and other services. Report him as it's assault, and on a child too.

If anyone spat at my daughter I would have kicked their face in x