BOSTON — When his daughter’s diaper needed changing during a family night out for dinner, Josh Polonsky asked the restaurant manager where he could change her and didn’t like the answer he got.
“He suggested the bathroom floor, so we kind of tucked ourselves under the table and changed her much to the dismay of a couple people dining near us,” recalled Polonsky.
The Pine Hill resident’s story is a familiar one to state Sen. Brendan Crighton, the father of two young children, who is sponsoring two bills aimed at broadening changing table availability. One requires all family restaurants to have at least one diaper-changing station available to men as well as women.
The other bill requires all new or substantially renovated buildings which are reasonably expected to be open to the public to provide access to diaper-changing stations to all genders.
The bill received a favorable report on Dec. 4 from the Legislature’s Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight and Crighton anticipates the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health to issue its report on the restaurant bill by the spring.
Crighton said his experience as a father searching unsuccessfully for a changing station “is a fairly common occurrence.”
“It’s an antiquated notion that it’s just something that should be in the women’s room,” he said.
The legislation is the latest attempt to increase changing station availability in places frequented by young families. Polonsky has known Crighton for several years and credited the senator, and former state senator, now Lynn Mayor Thomas M. McGee, and former state Rep. Steven Walsh before Crighton, with pushing the changing station bill.
Polonsky said limited changing table availability in family-oriented restaurants doesn’t make sense.
“It’s like walking in and seeing a children’s menu and no high chairs,” he said.
Massachusetts Restaurant Association government affairs director Steve Clark said the Association has not staked out a position on the diaper bills.
The father of two young children said he has changed “thousands of diapers” and almost always found a changing table to perform the task.
“Most restaurants that are family-friendly probably have them. Does this really rise to the level of needing a law?” asked Clark.
Yes, said Lynn resident and attorney Maura Cronin, adding she typically trundles her 2-year-old daughter out to the family car if she needs to change her during an outing. The inconvenience is magnified when she is out with her daughter and sons, ages 6 and 8, and her daughter needs changing.
She said the commitment by family restaurants and public locations to provide a safe and clean place for kids to eat extends to diaper changing.
“It would be nice to feel as a young parent that you are welcome,” she said.
Crighton and Cronin estimate purchase and installation costs for a changing table wouldn’t impose a significant financial burden on establishments. Koala Kare, a company manufacturing changing tables, lists prices on its website for tables ranging from $200 to $1,000.
