Diaper duties on airplanes

Harriet Baskas Travel writer

A few weeks back, I was taken to task by some readers for urging air travelers not to change their babies’ diapers on airplane seat cushions or tray tables.

I’d seen it done and it struck me as stinky and unsanitary. Some parents shot back: “Got a better idea, Ms. Obviously-You-Have-No-Children?”

Others wrote to share their in-flight diaper changing adventures and offer strategies for accomplishing this task using laps, lavatories, floors and, yes, even the seat cushions.

Laps and seats
Nicole in Eagle River, Alaska, wrote: “When ... I need to change our children, I have always placed them on my lap and put a blanket on top of them while changing. I'm quick. No one sees or smells anything. The only problem I have is the flight attendants not being able to put diapers in their trash even if it is in a plastic bag that I carry. That’s what stinks!”

Ann in Covina, Calif., handled in-flight diaper changes this way: “My husband and I ... made a ‘table’ by turning knee-to-knee. He had the head. I had the stinky end and we lay the changing mat under the baby. We worked as fast as possible and placed the dirty diaper in double zip lock bags as well as the wipes. With that configuration our bodies blocked the view and with two at work we were nice and fast.”

On the floor
Liz in San Diego, Calif., reported this: “On a recent five-hour flight from Baltimore to San Diego, I saw several parents changing their child's diaper in the emergency exit area in the back of the plane, just in front of the lavatory. Most had a mat to put on the floor, but it seemed ... like a pretty good place to change a diaper. There was plenty of room for the parent to move around, it was out of the way of any other passengers, and it wasn't on the seat.”

Babies in bathrooms
When Beth from Gainesville, Va., had to change her nine-month-old daughter on a trip to London she says, “[W]e ended up having to lay her on the counter in the bathroom with one of us changing her and the other supporting her. Gross ... too many germs for me. Next time [we use] the seat!”

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But Jessica from Salt Lake City, Utah, offered this lav-strategy: “If you put the seat lid down, it makes just enough space to change a young baby and is still just enough space for a toddler to lay on with his legs up. Not the most pleasant, or ergonomically efficient, but I can't imagine changing a diaper on an airplane seat.”

And Julia from Bellingham, Wash., sent these instructions: “The way to change a diaper in flight is to go to the toilet, use the toilet as a seat for yourself, and lay the baby across your knee. Then you can change the diaper easily and without baby ever touching the floor or the seat. I changed all five of my babies this way, even at home, and my daughter and I changed my grandson this way recently during a long flight to London. It is so easy. I just do not know why people make simple things difficult.”

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