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Fathers: We want more diaper changing tables

Two bills in the California legislature would make baby diaper changing tables as accessible to men as they are to women.

“This bill reflects our modern families now,” said California State Sen. Ricardo Lara, sponsor of one of the bills, in an interview with USA TODAY Network.

Lara’s bill would require facilities with changing tables make these tables accessible to both genders. This means having a changing table in a men’s restroom if there is one in a women’s, or having a family restroom.

The bill would apply to newly constructed or refurbished facilities and is expected to be up for a vote by the full state assembly in August, Lara said.

Why now?

Lara said he thought of introducing such a bill after receiving calls from same-sex couples who wanted changing tables in men’s restrooms. But the population affected by the bill is much broader, he said.

The other bill, sponsored by State Sen. Lois Wolk, would take the requirement a step further and require that current facilities also make changing tables equally accessibly.

Nine out of 10 fathers who lived with their children said they bathe, diaper or dress their children every day or several times a week, according to a 2013 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The website Changing Table Locator, www.changingtablelocator.com, lists more than 3,000 facilities nationwide that are “family-friendly” for changing diapers, only accessible to women or has no changing table.

Jacob Smithers, an Illinois stay-at-home dad who helps run the website, said he first realized the lack of changing tables when he had to change his baby’s diaper a couple years ago in a Chicago restaurant.

With no table in either men’s or women’s restroom, Smithers said he resorted to laying out paper towels and changing his 6-month-old son on the bathroom floor.

Smithers said if a restaurant has high chairs, they should have changing tables.

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