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Airplane traveler asks couple to stop changing their baby's diaper on the seat's tray table: 'No idea'

May 09, 2023

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A woman raised a stink about a stinky diaper dilemma during an airline trip — and wound up flying in some unfriendly skies when the parents of the child in question didn't appreciate her request.

Writing on Reddit to the subreddit community known as AITA ("Am I the a--hole"), a woman who described herself as 28 years old said she was recently on a flight for several hours, "seated behind a couple with a baby."

The Reddit user called "No_Cartographer8186" wrote, "I’m a really nauseous flyer, so I took a Dramamine ahead of time and did my best to get some sleep during the flight."

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No such luck, however.

"This didn't happen because of the baby's crying — but oh well, I know flights are scary and stressful for infants and there was nothing anyone could do about that," she wrote.

A woman on Reddit said she was dismayed that a couple on a recent flight changed their baby's diaper right in their seating area — and on their pull-down tray table, no less — rather than taking the infant to the restroom. Plenty of people weighed in with opinion and reaction. (iStock)

She said that instead, "what got to me was the couple changing their baby's extremely stinky number-two diaper right in the middle of their seats — using the mom's food tray as a changing table."

The traveler said they "were at the back of the plane, right by the bathrooms, which I confirmed had baby-changing tables when I had to go back there to throw up after the smell hit me," she noted.

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"I didn't say anything the first time, but the second time I heard them go into the diaper bag a couple [of] hours later, I asked if they could please go use the plane bathroom instead of exposing everyone on the plane to the smell," the woman on Reddit wrote.

"The flight attendant at the back of the plane agreed with me and asked them to only use the bathrooms to change their baby."

As a result of that request, "the mom went off on me," added the woman on Reddit, "and said I had no idea how stressful it is to travel with an infant, which is true — I don't have kids."

A child with her hand on an airplane window. "The flight attendant at the back of the plane agreed with me and asked them to only use the bathrooms to change their baby," wrote a woman on Reddit about a recent plane drama. (iStock)

She went on, "The flight attendant at the back of the plane agreed with me and asked them to only use the bathrooms to change their baby."

Plus, she said, "a few minutes later the pilot made an announcement that all diaper changing needed to be done in the bathrooms, after which both parents looked extremely annoyed."

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The woman on Reddit asked others on the social media site, "AITA for asking them to stop changing their baby in the middle of the plane and inadvertently bringing it to the attention of the flight crew?"

Fox News Digital reached out to a psychologist for insight into the plane drama.

Plenty of individuals, meanwhile, weighed in on the woman's situation with their own thoughts. Nearly 5,000 people reacted to the woman's account, with some 850 people writing individual comments about it.

"Exposing people in a closed metal tube thousands of feet in the air to that is criminal."

Most people said the traveler was not in the wrong at all for making her request — and pointed out that the parents' actions were not only unsanitary but also unsafe. Said one person, on that note, "A changing table [in the plane's restroom] has a buckle. Imagine if there was unexpected turbulence."

Wrote another person bluntly — eliciting 1,000 reactions of his or her own — "Exposing people in a closed metal tube thousands of feet in the air to that is criminal."

"On most planes, the bathrooms are so tiny that changing a baby in them is an acrobatic feat. But, you still [have to] do it for the sake of everyone else on the plane!" wrote a commenter about the woman's airline story. (iStock)

Said someone else, "People eat on those [food] trays and while I know they [the airline crews] are supposed to clean them between flights, let's be honest, sometimes they might [be] missed."

"It's real. I work in aviation, and I’ve seen it countless times."

Yet another commenter said, "I mean, on most planes, the bathrooms are so tiny that changing a baby in them is an acrobatic feat. But, you still [have to] do it for the sake of everyone else on the plane!"

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Added the original poster of the situation in a later edit to her post — after some commenters questioned whether the story was "real" or not — "It is very, very real. It wasn't a super-crowded flight."

She said she and her husband "and the other couple were the only folks for a couple [of] rows toward the back of the plane — and the flight attendant wasn't back there the first time [the couple] did it."

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Noted another commenter, "Oh, it's real. I work in aviation, and I’ve seen it countless times."

This same commenter went on, "The parents always act shocked when asked not to do it. Also, I’ve had them leave open dirty diapers on the floor as revenge for being asked to use the changing tables."

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She added, "Oh, and tray tables are not cleaned between flights. Only overnight."

Wrote another person, "Never eat directly off any tray table EVER."

Maureen Mackey is managing editor of lifestyle for Fox News Digital.

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Published MAN LEAVES HIS OWN WIFE ON NIGHTMARE PLANE TRIP, TRIES TO HELP CRYING BABY AND MOTHER: ‘HUGE MISTAKE’ IRATE PASSENGER GOES ON ANGRY MID-AIR RANT OVER CRYING INFANT, SCREAMED HE WAS IN A ‘TIN CAN’ WITH A BABY AIR TRAVEL CONTROVERSY: PASSENGERS WHO RECLINE THEIR SEATS ON FLIGHTS ARE SEEN AS 'RUDE' MAN ON REDDIT UPSET HE CAN'T SLEEP IN THE NUDE WITH NEW NEIGHBORS NEARBY: ‘ONLY SO MUCH I CAN DO’ CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER