Baby changing facilities

[Housewife]

Interested in people's views on existing baby changing facilities. Sometimes I have been totally shocked at the disgusting places restaurants, service stations, supermarkets etc expect us to change our babies in. Was quite impressed with the facilities at Lakeside shopping centre however and wondered if anyone has any thoughts on what's really good/ really awful/gets your blood boilign etc

When supermarkets say they supply nappies etc, and they never stock the nappy shelves in the changing rooms!

What upsets me is those quite nice Cabrini units that some places have, but the rolls of paper to place on the mat have always run out.
Anyone South of Watford will probably agree with me that once you have seen the exemplary facilities at Bluewater you are spoiled for anywhere else. Not only are the centre's baby change and feeding areas plentiful, and separate, but several of the bigger shops have risen to the challenge and provided their own spacious parent and baby areas.
Generally speaking, babies and their minders get a bum deal, I think.

what upsets me is baby changing facilities inside the ladies loos, forcing me & not hubby to do the nappy changes.

Well I agree with what you wrote but consider yourselves lucky as I don't know any other country where you can change a child that easily... that includes France, Belgium, Netherlands and USA (I know that's not the world!).... where it can be difficult to find a room in the first place.

Pupuce, I totally agree. In France recently I stopped at numerous service stations where there was not a single changing station, I had to use the (dirty) floor; in McDonald's in Spain there was one of those pulldown jobs in the disabled loo but it was not clean neither was there any paper to put over it. I had to complain to staff as there wasn't even a regular bin in there let alone a nappy bin, thus I had to step over used sanitary towels on the floor ...

Reading these messages makes me think it's a wonder our babies don't get every bug going. All the cleaning and sterilising of toys, changing mats etc that we are advised to do at home is negated when we come up against the sadly typical baby changing facilities outlined here.

Marina, I totally agree about the fab Bluewater family rooms - and so many of them, too! Piped music, rocking chairs, child sized and adult-sized loos and wash basins. During the winter I was struck by the huge numbers of blissful-looking parents wheeling around tiny sleeping babies, doing a spot of real or window shopping, insulated from the wet and cold. Yes, Bluewater is a parent mecca, no doubt about it.

My personal gripe concerns train stations. Charing Cross in particular. So many people pass through it, you would think they would offer something family friendly in the way of loos and baby changing facilities. The ladies loos are down a steep flight of stairs. Carrying a pushchair up and down takes several deep breaths and a lot of effort. The good news is that the baby changing
room is on ground level.The bad news is that it doubles as the disabled loo, so you have to find someone who has the key. Your first port of call is the help desk attendant... who then has to find a guard ... who then has to get the key from its storage place... And the queues at the help desk can make you weep.

And what do you think of the baby changing facilities inside those newish unisex public loos that clean thenselves and automatically open in 20 minutes? If your child has a major accident in the pants area, the pressure is on.

Thanks for everyone's feedback - good to know I'm not alone in feeling completely stressed when it's change time - esp on long journeys. Also, when my son was standing, but still in nappies, I found changing him when out even worse as he would not lie down on the mat and would wander off, touch the loos, pick things off the floor whilst I would be trying to grab him, keep him away from potential germs (difficult) and finish off by doing maniac handwashing all round in a total state of germ paranoia as his nappy hung sideways around his waist. Stress!

To bring in another thread, the baby changing facility in my local M&S is brill; toddler-sized loo, clean and safe changing area, comfortable feeding area. So they can get something right!

Batters, you're not alone. I too make a bee line for disabled loos. With two children, one in a pushchair, the alternative would mean our group of three would have to split up: me inside a tiny cubicle in the ladies loos with one of them, while the other waits outside the closed door. In unfamiliar and crowded public places this is not ideal, and I refuse to take the risk of leaving my toddler unattendedi a pushchair, and out of my sight.

John Lewis in Aberdeen is amazing with doors that open automatically and a room that manages to be very soothing. Plenty of comfy chairs, a screen if you want to b/f in private, changing mats etc. The other bonus is that the ladies loos (again with automatic doors) have a section with two loos , sinks etc and space for prams/buggies and a door which pulls over and locks so that you can go to the loo and your pram is locked in the area with you. Mothercare is good, Boots is good (complete with nappies, wipes etc). But it's the doors that win for me!

I also think Bluewater is brill for baby facilities. I went there just before Christmas and my son was only just 3 months so we had to make a couple of trips to the feeding rooms (breastfeed). I will quite happily travel there from Portsmouth knowing I can spend a whole day without looking for facilities. The new factory outlet village in Portsmouth (forgotten what it is called, only been once) hasnt even got a feeding room, just a little room with a pull down from the wall, which I hate and this has only just opened.
I also use the disabled toilets when I have my pram, what do they expect you to do with your baby and pram when you want to go to the toilet??

John Lewis in Kingston is good. Bentalls less so - there isn't enough room in one of the changing rooms for the buggy! What gets to me is supposedly child friendly restaurants - like my local pizza express - that make most of their money from familes but still don't have even the basic changing facilities, leaving you to grovel on the loo floor.

Baby changing in BHS, Horsham is pretty good, although it's sometimes awkward to get in the door. Boots are pretty good too.

Most public toilet areas I go to, however, don't have any baby changing facilities within the ladies toilets - sometimes they are put with the disabled toilet for which you need a 'tag' to gain entrance!

Also, cubicles in ladies toilets are too small to get the buggy in. This means I have to leave the buggy outside the cubicle and take my toddler plus all my shopping into the cublicle with me! Doesn't leave much room.

I've been reading this thread with interest, having changed my son just about everywhere: restaurant floors, airport lounges, back seat of the car, grass verges etc. etc. I personally am amazed how high our expectations are for changing facilities. Basically, shops are there to flog stuff to us and are really under no obligation whatsoever to provide for our personal comfort in any way. The fact that so many do is only because they think it will make us stay longer in their vicinity and therefore spend more. It is also worth remembering that we all pay for these facilities through the prices that we pay for products being sold. The higher shop rents are (which goes hand in hand with increased facilities), the higher their product prices.
Service stations, restaurants and other facilities that either advertise their family friendliness or changing areas should then keep to their promises but as for the rest, I'm really not that bothered.

But equally Bugsy, as adults (and paying customers) we expect sanitary, workable, safe and private toilet facilities to be available to us so I'm not sure that babies/ children deserve any less.

I also think that like good service, good customer facilities generally pay for themselves in terms of customer loyalty. This seems to be a key factor in Bluewater's success. I agree that it is probably not fair to expect small shops / restaurants to provide separate facilities but for anything like a Pizza Express, I don't think its an unreasonable expectation given their size and the fact that they do encourage children.

Ditto to all of you who use disabled loos when possible. There is no way I'm going to leave my 2 year old outside of the loos screaming her head off! And there is never a queue for the disabled loos like there is for others, so we wouldn't be inconveniencing anyone. My MIL got slapped on the hand by a disabled person because she had to use the disabled loo because the others were being cleaned. Needless to say she gave this women a peace of her mind!

I am glad to say that a new shopping centre in town has got family loos, male and female, so hubby can not make me take my daughter to the loos everytime now!

Bugsy - I am very concerned where I change my son and where I can feed him. I dont see how we expect them to lay on the floor and be changed. OK there are times you need to and I too have changed on the back seat of the car and on the grass etc etc, but these companies and shopping centres want our money but I dont shop at places that do not allow me to change and feed my son in resonable facilities. I would not eat my lunch in a toilet with a seat stuffed into the corner.
Another gripe I have are parking spaces. Why do old people and people who dont have children park in the allocated spaces for mums with children. I have also noticed at our local Asda that there are probably 3 times more disabled spaces than mum and child spaces. Why?? Im not saying there should be less disabled just more mum and child as we are the ones who do the shopping most of the time.

Bugsey I take your point, but when I'm ferrying around two children, we need a changing space that can take a buggy and more than one child. This is my major complaint regarding baby changing facilities - or the lack of them. I do not see why I should have to put one child in a vulnerable position on one side of a closed door, while I am attending to the needs of the the other child, squashed into a tiny ladies loo cubicle.

As for a high standard of cleanliness and wide range of facilites, these are desirable but secondary considerations for me.

Yes Joe, just yesterday I saw someone park in the allocated child spaces which was the only one left and it was a large people carrier (fine) but two adults in! The problem is we get a ticket for parking in disabled places but people who park in child spaces don't. I wouldn't exactly expect them too but I think they could get a note on windscreen asking them not to park there for instance!

Jac, I had a big row outside my local Sainsbury's a few weeks ago when a man on his own pulled into the only remaining parent and child space. He was telling me all kinds of excuses about how he was late for work etc.... I stood my guns and made him move. I've actually seen a woman on her own pull into one of the spaces, get a child car seat out of the boot and put it into the back seat so it looked as if she had a child. Makes me really cross, but the shops don't seem to care.

Agree on the car parking thing in Supermarkets. In a standard space, it is sometimes nigh on impossible to get a toddler in and out of a car seat. Another gripe of mine is the use of lifts. It drives me mad that lifts in department stores and so on are often full up with young able bodied people perfectly able to use the escalator (and frequently only going up 1 or 2 levels). Often I have had to stand and wait for 4 / 5 lifts to come and go before there is one with space for a pushchair.

I actually don't take my 2 year old shopping very often but he loves it when I do. He certainly enjoys our weekly trip to the supermarket and views department stores pretty much as giant soft play areas.

I can't say I agree with you on parents expecting "rights" from retailers. The fact is that almost all supermarkets now provide parent and child car spaces largely because of the acceptance that standard car spaces can be dangerous for small children or at the very least, difficult to manage given the lack of space on either side. The annoyance is that people without chilren use them although the benefits to them in doing so are much smaller.

Likewise lifts. Obviously it is dangerous (and generally expressly forbidden) for pushchairs to be taken on an escalator. It is just basic courtesy that those perfectly able to take the escalators should do so, leaving the lifts available to the elderly, disabled and those with buggies.

All of these things along with decent baby change facilities are simply part of delivering a good customer service. Oviously retailers wouldn't provide them if they didn't think that it was just justified by the increased business they attract.