Mum finds missing child in minutes after using 'looking loudly' method

Losing sight of your child is a panic-inducing experience for any parent, but one mum has shared a helpful search method that meant she was able to locate her daughter in minutes. Mum and wedding photographer Krista Piper had taken her children to a "huge" indoor play place with "lots of little nooks and crannies" when she lost sight of her three year old daughter, Lily.

Krista was talking to another mum while her daughter went back and forth between the different areas of the play place, and when she looked back to check on her, she was nowhere to be seen. The mum began to "panic", but then a "lightbulb went off" and she remembered a TikTok video she'd seen about another mum who had lost her child in a supermarket and found him with the "looking loudly" technique.

Rather than yell out her son's name, the mum in the TikTok video had shouted out a description of the clothes he'd been wearing that day, and was able to find him "way faster" as other people were able to help in the search. Krista, who goes by the username @krista.

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On TikTok, she shared her experience: "So that is what I did. I stopped calling out her name, and I started yelling, 'little girl, pink shirt, pink Minnie Mouse shirt! ' I'm sure people thought that I was a little crazy, she was probably only missing for like a minute, to maybe a minute and a half, but for me it felt like eternity", reports the Mirror.

Reflecting on the incident, Krista mentioned that she could have added more details such as Lily's age or hair colour, but in the heat of the moment, she shouted the quickest description she could think of. As soon as she started shouting the description, other parents began repeating it, and thankfully, another mum spotted her daughter, all thanks to Krista's quick thinking.

Krista further advised: "If you ever lose your child, or dog or anything, yell out their description, raise your voice. You know, I probably looked like a crazy person, but it got the job done."

Other parents commended Krista for sharing this advice and agreed that describing the child is much more effective than just shouting their name. One user commented: "Yes! Yelling their name doesn't help because no one knows what Sally looks like, but they can pick out a three-year-old in a pink shirt and blue jeans."

Another commented: "This is such incredible advice and any parent's worst nightmare. So thankful for mums pulling together to help find her. Good job mamma! " A third praised: "This is wonderful - thank you! I try to dress kids in bright clothes when we go to big places like that just for my own eyes but it's a great idea."

This story was originally reported on April 15th 2023.