A woman has been praised for her response after witnessing a new mother changing her baby’s soiled nappy in their plane seat.

On her flight, the 28-year-old found herself seated behind a couple with an infant and struggled to sleep amid the child’s wails.

Despite the disturbance, she remained calm, reminding herself that “flights can be scary and stressful” for little ones. Nevertheless, her patience wore thin when she observed the parents using the fold-down tray tables as an impromptu changing station for their baby‘s dirty nappy rather than using the lavatory facilities provided.

Taking to Reddit to detail her ordeal, she described: “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. 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 went on to express her dismay, saying: “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. We 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.”

“I didn’t say anything the first time, but the second time I heard them go into the diaper bag a couple hours later I asked if they could please go use the plane bathroom instead of exposing everyone on the plane to the smell.”

The mother then began berating her for being unreasonable, highlighting the challenges of travelling with a small child. The woman added: “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 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.”

Despite this, she couldn’t shake off feelings of guilt for confronting the mother’s actions, leading her to seek advice from Reddit users on whether she was in the wrong.

One user responded: “There are changing tables in the bathrooms. That’s what they are for. Thank God the maintenance crews disinfect between flights. The thought of eating/drinking off a tray table used as a changing table makes me want to hurl.”

While another added added: “Basic rules of baby changing, don’t do it where people eat or where people are in close proximity. If you have a choice always use the changing tables.” A third chimed in: “Baby turds stink worse than regular ones. Exposing people in a closed metal tube thousands of feet in the air to that is criminal.”