Thursday 24 March 2016

Travelling Japan: Baby Room and Breastfeeding

Planning a trip to Japan with your baby in tow but you are not so sure about baby facilities in Japan? Worry not, I'd say that Japan is a super baby-friendly country to travel! Well, at least I have not encountered any problem finding a proper place to change Baby V's nappy during my entire stay in Japan. Emmm... I say this in comparison with the baby rooms of KLIA and KLIA 2, if you can actually find one. T_T Let's not go into that and concentrate on our world-class Japanese toilets/ baby rooms topic here.

There are plenty of baby rooms almost everywhere. Some places go as far as putting a baby room in the male section of the washroom. Yay to that because now every daddy can change baby's diaper! LOL. Even if you can't find a baby room, just use the washroom for the disabled. These spacious washrooms are equipped with a fold-down changing bed. 

The Kansai International Airport has a particularly nice baby room that you can do almost everything from nappy changing to making formula milk or to nurse. 








Pretty fascinating huh? Note the mini tiny human toilet bowl. Cute isn't it? LOL. I have not seen anything like this in public amenities yet before this.

This is a little off-topic but, what if you need to go to the loo and no one can take charge of the baby? Bring the baby into the washroom with you! Because the toilets comes with a baby chair inside! Haha. I am pretty amazed to actually see this kind of facility but of course, it's only available in certain places, especially kiddo-centric places like zoos and aquariums. 

Now that the nappy changing and toilet thingy are covered, let's talk about breastfeeding. Nursing rooms are a little hard to find as compared to baby changing rooms. However, that's not an entirely huge problem for nursing moms because there are a few ways to go about nursing discreetly:

1. Use nursing cover. I nurse using a cover almost anytime and anywhere. These include airports, trains, buses, parks, restaurants, and everywhere else that allows me to sit. I understand that some babies hates to be under the cover due to heat, but if you pick a cool weather to travel, this is probably less of a problem. Anyway, some babies are just playful, pulling the cover from time to time while nursing, just like Baby V. Haha.

2. Nurse inside a soft structured carrier, although this requires a little practice. I did this when Baby V needs to nurse but I really couldn't find a place to sit down and nurse with a cover. The best part of this method? You can still walk around while you nurse and nobody is going to notice it.

3. Use double-shirt method. This is what I did: pull up the top shirt and pull down the top of the padded tank top underneath, and feed. The top shirt needs to be a little loose so that it can be lifted easily and falls easily to cover everything. No nursing bra involved and therefore, no troublesome clips to undo. And again, people probably won't notice that you are feeding because you really looks like you are just holding your baby.

If all the above still fails to deter unwanted attention, keep calm and nurse on. You have done your part not to offend anyone, although there really isn't anything offensive about breastfeeding. Simply accept the fact that wherever you are, there are people who just don't know when to mind their own business. :P



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