Lost Children

[msjpatt]

I am wondering if I should try and find some way to put identification one my son who is 4 years old just in case he gets away from us while in the parks. Note that he does not like to have anything around his wrist, so I would need some other way of having identification on him (our name, hotel & cell phone). Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[NCombs]

I don't have a specific answer to that but just another tip to offer-take a picture of your son each morning so if for any reason you would need to give a description of what he is wearing you could quickly access a photo(especially if you have a digital camera).

 

[NCombs]

From allears:

If it gives you peace of mind, it might be a good idea for your child to have some sort of identification on her in the extremely unlikely event she gets separated from you. Some guests safety- pin a small laminated card somewhere on their child's clothing with name, resort, and a cellular phone number to make it easier for a Cast Member to track parents down in a park. This kind of card could easily be placed on a string, but I wouldn't recommend putting anything with a string around a young child's neck for safety reasons.

Lost Kid Tip: Make sure your daughter understands that if she should get separated from you, she should go to the first Cast Member she can find. When you enter a park, point out the kind of costumes they wear, and particularly, their unique-looking name badges, so she can easily identify one. Blue-uniformed Security Hosts are easy to find as well, and look like the police officers she may have seen at home. Lost children are taken to Guest Relations in the parks until their parents/guardians can be located. Consult your park map or ask a Cast Member for the location of Guest Relations in the park you're visiting.

 

[weregoingtodw]

We get the wrist bracelets from Guest Services at the park. Our DD doesn't like things around her wrist either, so we just put it around her ankle & she's fine with that. I would definitely put something on him listing your cell numbers and hotel info. Better safe than sorry!

 

[markºoº]

I would get a band from guest services and just put it around the ankle.

Even something as simple as a business card with your cell phone number can be put into a pocket but the child might not remember it is there if they are in a panic.

 

[disneyandme]

We had a little heart shaped tag made outside of the Walmart-- they have a machine. We put it on a string and our daughter wore it inside her shirt as a necklace. She loves it.

 

[msjpatt]

Thanks to you all for such wonderful ideas. I now know exactly what I will do.

 

[buzz2400]

One thought about pointing out the cm and their outfit, they are all different for each ride and section so if you are entering a park and point out a cm and you become separated later at a different section of the park, the cm will not be wearing the same outfit. Just a thought but you can always explain to child if parent gets lost, go to a ride or store and look for a cm. My mother always told my son to look for a mother if he ever got lost because they are most likely to help you. I also read from the boards that some people put id in shoes.

 

[adisneymama]

Just wanted to pass this on. I saw a family doing this last year when we were there. The family had taken the luggage tags provided by AAA(I think, they looked like the ones we had from AAA) and put their information on it. They then tied the tags to the buttons on the childrens clothing. It seemed to work really well. It is something I am considering for this trip.

 

[ReggieB]

We get the wrist bracelets from Guest Services at the park. Our DD doesn't like things around her wrist either, so we just put it around her ankle & she's fine with that. I would definitely put something on him listing your cell numbers and hotel info. Better safe than sorry!

Oh wow! I didn't realise they had things like that, what a great tip. Is it specifically for lost child info?

 

[lllovell]

If your child might be the type to play with things and perhaps lose something attached to their clothing, buy some mailing labels (or something similar) - write something like "Parents Cell Phone # (xxx) xxx-xxxx" on it and stick it to the back of their clothes. An adult will notice this and you can tell your child that your number is on their back if they get lost. The good thing is they can't reach it to pull it off and removable mailig labels will stay all day and not leave behind a residue.

I am hesitant to put my full name and room number, etc on something that a stranger might find on the ground.

I dont tell my children to look for a CM. I tell them to look for a mother or father with children and ask for their help. The kind of person that would bother a child is not going to have his/her whole family with them. They would tend to be alone.

 

[PratersloveDW]

On our last trip to the World, DH and I had this horrified child, maybe 4 or 5 years old, come up to us in tears. She was crying but managed to say that she had lost her family. Mind you, this was at night in the World Showcase - in Germany - during the F&WF. It was packed, dark, and full of half drunken people. She had no ID on her and could hardly get her name out through her sobbing.

I stepped in front of a long line of people waiting to get beer - got a rather nasty reaction from them - and asked the CM to please get someone to escort this child. She just looked at me, then looked behind me at the ever growing line of people wanting their BEER, then looked back at me with the most confused look on her face. After standing there for a minute I finally realized that she was going to be of no help to the situation.

By this time, the lost girl is frantic and now I am starting to get a little panicky myself. She is nearly on the ground in tears, my DH is scared to console her and give her a hug afraid of how it might look to her parents if they were to suddenly arrive, and for the same reason, I was afraid to walk too far with her; besides, I wasn't sure where the nearest Guest Relations was located.

Finally, I decided that we couldn't very well stand there and wait for someone to come to us. I picked up the young girl, now uncontrollably sobbing, and headed for the nearest store. Still, no one easily available to help us...Germany was packed! I yelled at a lady behind the counter, who at the time was helping about 4 other people, and explained that we needed help and we needed it now. She immediately got someone to escort the child to Guest Relations but the girl now refused to let go of me. It was at this point, however, that I heard a boy shout behind me and the girl quickly scurried out of my hold. I turned to see, what I later found out to be, her big brother running up behind me. The CM was reluctant to let them run off alone, seeing as the brother was only a few years older than the girl. The parents soon followed and everything was fine. But it definitely made me realize that my DS will ALWAYS have an ID on him with my cell number available!!!

 

[pezpam]

My DD carries a very small backpack in the parks. She gets to carry her autograph book, a small snack, etc...... I put a tag in there.

What I did was to find a luggage tag at Target - they're probably available everywhere - where it slides open to let you put your info in. It's see-through on both sides, so I put in 2 papers. On one side is our basic info - my name, my cell phone number, etc..... On the other side is a picture of the two of us together - this makes it really easy for the person helping her to be 100% sure that I *am* her mom and it's ok to release her to me without them having to worry or stress her out more over the issue. I periodically update the picture and the contact info gets a new paper if the info is different than during our last trip. It's easy and I don't have to worry about whether she's thinking straight or not - the CM would have all of the info right at hand.

I do also go over who she should talk to if she gets lost and she would probably be fine, but this puts my mind at ease that I don't have to count on her remembering my cell number......

Here's hoping that we're all prepared, but that our luggage tags get dusty from never being needed.

 

[lclark0621]

My DS is only 21 months old & I was concerned if we lost him last week in the parks he would not be able to tell the cms anything.

We went to one of those dog tag engraver machines. My DH has 4 little cat tags made up. They had his name & our cell phone numbers on them. We attached them to the loop on the back of his sneakers.

They were really small so they did not bother him. But it made us feel better. Luckily we never needed to test them out. But we will use them again when we go back in Nov.

 

[MomofKatie]

We used the pet ID tag machine at Petsmart for DD- she picked out the red heart shaped tag. We put our resort, dates of our stay, and our cellphone # on the tag. DD then wore it as a pendant on her necklace. We also had one made for her very favorite, shabby old teddy bear. They matched, and looked cute.

You could attach a tag like that to your DS's shoelaces. The info wouldn't be easily readable by anyone, but if a CM needed it, he could find it. There is actually an ID tag specially made to attach to the shoelaces- I can't recall the name right off the top of my head, but I know I've seen it mentioned on either the DIS or www.allearsnet.com in the planning section.

 

[valandemmy]

we got Luggage tags from DW a couple of weeks ago, that have Tinker Bell on them, all complete with name, number, address. I plan on putting one in DD4's Pocket, and explain to her if she gets lost to take it to a CM and that they will get us. Hopefully she wont get lost, but with SOOOO many people around, you can never be too sure.

 

[Grumpy_Disney_Dad]

Just FYI it is WDW's policy that there is no such thing as lost children only lost parents. Just be sure to point out CM's to her and tell her if Mommy and Daddy wander off to go immediately to one of them