'Dads Who Change Diapers' Helping to Install More Changing Stations in Men's Restrooms
— -- Scotty Schrier was at dinner with his wife and son when all of a sudden he heard "this sound." It was coming from his newborn baby.
After telling his wife, "I'll give you a break. Give me that diaper bag," Schrier told ABC News he soon ran into a major problem: The men's restroom in his local restaurant in Tampa, Florida, didn't have a diaper-changing station.
The 2009 incident prompted him to create Dads Who Change Diapers, a website that acts as a support group for men attempting to locate changing stations around the United States.
The site also features a map, created and maintained by the father of two, that details restaurants and stores that have changing stations accessible to men via men's restrooms, unisex bathrooms or family restrooms. Schrier invites readers to add locations to the map.
"If dads don't have changing tables, what can they do to change diapers? I've seen them run the gamut," Schrier, 43, told ABC News. "I've personally had to change my oldest son when he was standing up in a sink because it was all we had. I've had to take the kids back out to the car. I've seen dads say, 'Well, I don't care. I'll just change the kid on the table in the restaurant.'"
Schrier said he doesn't understand why changing stations aren't common practice in the United States. Especially when considering a 2013 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that found about 90 percent of fathers, who live in the same household as their child, say they diaper, bathe and dress their children either every day or several times per week.
Schrier's campaign is heating up, he said. He now has over 1,000 locations on the map, with more pouring in weekly.
One such location, Los Agaves Restaurant in Sheridan, Wyoming, was added by its owner, Ed Gnehm, earlier this week.
Gnehm, a father himself, said he's also frustrated when he can't change his children's diapers in restaurants and other stores.
"The primary concern of any restaurant should be sanitary conditions and food safety. If you do not provide a location to change diapers, people are going to take it into their own hands where to change it," he told ABC News. "Do you want a poopy diaper changed on the sink or the counter where employers may be washing their hands or might go to other customers? Offering a changing station seems like common sense."
The Macy's store in The Mall at Prince Georges in Hyattsville, Maryland, is another example of how frustrated fathers have recently made a difference. The department store added a changing station last month after a complaint.
In a statement to ABC News, Macy's said it hopes to continue the trend in every store.
"Macy's is in the process of acquiring and installing changing tables so that every store will have a changing station in a men's restroom, a women's restroom or a family restroom, according to where appropriate space is available," a representative said.
