Diaper changing in public

Well, I would have changed the baby in the car or on the floor (on a baby blanket so the baby was not directly on the floor). Changing a poopy diaper on a restaurant table is inappropriate, IMO. First, that's where people put their food when they eat. (Now, if you were going to get out some disinfectant and completely clean the table when you were finished, then fine.) Second, um, I really doubt the other patrons really wanted to see someone wiping poop off a baby's butt while enjoying their lattes and scones.

So, my vote - it was inconsiderate and inappropriate.

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I am with the majority on this one. It isn't so much the public display of poop and the nether regions- it is the poop on the table where people eat thing.

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Ethel-"these are fragile moms who do not have a college education" what the hell does not haveing a college education have to do with changing your baby on a table? I don't have a full college education (I only have one semester so far) and I still would never change my child on top of a table where people were going to eat! There are always alternatives: Stoller, Floor, Bench, Carseat, anywhere in a car (I've even used the trunk and floor in the backseat), use the countertop in the restroom. Yes it is not ideal but it gets the child clean right?

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Changing tables in bathrooms are a rarity in Holland, and only major departments stores or kid specific places tend to have them (and often you have to pay to use them), but I would never change my daughter on a dining table - that is completely unsanitary. God knows the amount of times she has rolled from the changing pad or somehow got poop where it was not suposed to be. I have changed blowouts while she is reclined in her stroller, on the floor, on park benches, in the trunk of the car, on the backseat of the car and many other random places. I think when she was young I even changed her in her infant car seat.

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Wow, to Ethel. That's so judgemental and RUDE. "announcing your Wal-Mart mom status." Where else would someone shop for diapers and formula? Would you expect a mother with triplets (College educated) to shop at the grocery store for things that she needs for so many babies? There is nothing wrong with being a Walmart Mom.

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Well, I would never change a diaper on a table surface any more than I would change a diaper on my dining table. However, I often do not have a car or stroller when I am in public. Strollers are a pain to get in and out of manual doors, and its annoying how often people will go in and out of a door in front of me and not bother to hold the door so I use a sling or snuggly.

However, I do carry a changing pad. I have often used bathroom sink countertops to change my baby when there are no changing tables. Or a restaurant booth. For me its less an issue of sanitation than it is just not wanting to see a diaper being changed in front of me, and for that a booth is very subtle unless someone decides to stand over the table looking down. You may think germs from a diaper are gross, but really, those same germs are found everywhere. Even one person not washing their hands can spread lots of germs on their way to the front door! I worked in restaurants for several years, if I worried about germs I would never be able to eat outside or my house or even go grocery shopping. But watching a bare bottom being changed while eating... that's icky.

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This is just inconsiderate, and DISGUSTING, and I would never do this.

I have changed my son in the car and the back of our minivan countless times. I don't see why this woman could not have done this.

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I have changed my baby's diapers in public on the floor (using a changing pad, etc.). It's safer (no rolling) and it's not a place where people eat. If I had been pregnant, for example, and couldn't use the floor easily I might have come up with another solution.

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Changing the baby in the car has always been our back-up place if nothing else is available. Because we have a wagon, it's especially easy to do it in the back. But even in a 2-door, it's still possible, if not the easiest thing to maneuver, to do it in the front or back seat (I know because I've done that, too). Even if it takes removing a bunch of junk out of the car to make room for a baby's bottom, it's better than in a restaurant around other people.

If we were with our baby in a restaurant, and had been dropped off with no car available, then we would either change the baby in the booth seat or chair; the baby would be shielded a bit because we would be standing in front of her. But as bad as it sounds, if I had a changing pad on me, I would choose changing her on the floor of the bathroom over doing it where people are eating. The diaper pad can always be cleaned and disinfected afterwards.

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To the snob who dissed fragile, uneducated moms who shop at Walmart. How ignorant and offensive! I grew up wearing K-Mart and Walmart clothes because we couldn't afford much better. I still shop at Walmart sometimes, even though we don't have to. So what! I know several people from uneducated, lower income families who have gone on to receive scholarships at Ivy League schools.
Ignorance does not only exist in lower-income families. While it is true that there are uneducated people who don't know better, why would they be called fragile? And for that matter, there are plenty of highly-educated idiots, who are lacking the trait that would keep someone from changing a baby on the top of a restaurant table - it's called common sense. And only someone lacking common sense would view Walmart moms as uneducated, fragile and pathetic. It's time for me to get off the soapbox now!

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That's just wildly inappropriate. I have three kids, aged 6 years, 3 years, and 19 mos. I have had plenty of inopportune diaper moments! Exposing human fecal material in a restaurant dining room is just beyond inappropriate. My personal methods of handling that situation have included:

-spraying disinfectant on the bathroom floor, cleaning it up, putting down a changing pad on the bathroom floor, and changing the diaper on the bathroom floor that way.

-taking the baby out to the car to change the diaper in the car

-taking the baby out of the restaurant and into another local business which has a changing table

-taking the baby out of the restaurant and changing the diaper on a bench on the sidewalk.

I am not wildly opposed to public diaper changing - but in a restaurant, where people are paying money to eat?? Come on. That's just never going to be acceptable.

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changing baby's diaper in public? No problem. Being rude and blatant about it? Problem. I've crawled under a table and changed my son's poopy diaper on the floor very discreetly when there hasn't been a changing table available. When he was a small baby. Toddlers can usually sit with the poopy diaper for a good ten minutes until we can get to an appropriate place. It's called manners.

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Changing a diaper in public? No problem.

Changing it in an eatery, on a table where food is consumed? That's just not thinking.

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I just ran across this and wonder if it is the same people!

http://lifestyle.msn.com/Relationships/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=34901

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Wallaby, what's especially scary is that I think that is a different discusting, thoughtless event. The morons surround us everywhere!

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