There was a great thread on Chat a while back with tips for lost kid prevention. I thought I’d start one here. We are heading to WDW in 7 days with DD8. I learned a good tip on the other thread: tell DD to go into a store to look for a CM if she loses us. I had always told her to look for a CM, but the advice to go into a store is even better. What other advice do you have?
I just make sure my DD had cab fare and the confirmation # for the flight home
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Know the adults names. Young kids will answer that your name is mommy or a nickname. They should know your first name and last if its different from theirs.
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People also get those temporary tattoos & dog tags with info…
A similar thread that came up the other day
We told DS then 7 to stand still and shout our first names if we got separated.
I used to print address labels with our names, address, cell phone and resort name and put inside their shoes. It does leave a sticky place inside the shoe later.
We tell our kids to stay put and look for a mommy with kids to help. Another mom will get the appropriate person to help them. I know I would do that for someone else’s lost child. We also put our names and cell numbers on address labels and stuck them on the inside of our DD4s shirt and in her little backpack. We told her to pull the label off and show it to someone if needed since CMs cannot look on clothing for parents’ info. DD7 has my cell memorized.
Just wondered does the magic bands help with lost children now. Is the information stored on there?
Go back to the last place you saw them. Lost child protocol calls for CMs to remain with the found child in the place they were found for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, if parents don’t show up, the child is taken to another designated place.
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Probably not the best method but cheap and easy: I put a big “hello my name is” sticker on DS2’s back with his name, my name, and my cell number.
They have temporary tattoos that you can put your phone number on, the main company that’s always advertised is safety tat
We always made sure the kids could spot a cast member, they normally know them by the costumes and the name tags. You should have a plan, “if you get lost, find a cast member and have them call us, don’t move around, don’t try to find us…blah blah blah”. Or “go to city hall”, etc.
I think the initial reaction is for them to panic and try to find you which actually gets them farther apart usually. Yelling “Mom!” will ellicit about 9000 responses 
We always said you have to find someone with the Disney name tag, not a stranger. When he was younger we had tags on everything with our names and phone numbers for contact. I usually attached a cheap key ring from home depot to his belt loop, so it was in the same spot everyday and he knew to say “call my parents” and show them the tag if he was lost, which thankfully…he never was.
Some people take pictures of their kids each morning on their cell phone or digital camera so they remember what they’re wearing each day, or they all color code their wardrobe “today we’re wearing blue” so it’s easy to spot the family.
One problem with that is that it lets strangers know DS’s name. “Hi B_squared Jr, Mom and Dad are looking for you. They are meeting Mickey right now - follow me!”
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The daily cell phone photo is always a good idea. That way You can show CMs a current photo of your child and exactly what they are wearing. Very helpful for them when that have to call out a BOLO.
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On our first trip, I ordered a child-sized ReminderBand for my daughter. It doesn’t have her name on it, but it does have our phone numbers (Mom - 123.456.7890 / Dad - 098-765-4321). It also came in handy for school trips, etc. We also take photos each day to have a current pic in that day’s clothing. The last 2 trips, we color coordinated. It looked nice in pix, but mostly if I lost track of someone, I could look at my own shirt and say, Oh, we’re wearing purple today, she has on a Tangled t-shirt. (Usually, it was my husband that I misplaced, since we would sometimes split to ride different things. It helped me to keep an eye out for him and vice versa).
I wrote our cell phones down on the inside of our Magic Bands last time. My DS9 has had them memorized for years, but in a panic it might be harder for him to recall. I also like to remind myself that no child has EVER been kidnapped from Disney World. So statistically, the probability is higher that they will die in a monorail accident, which actually did happen once.
With respect to “stranger danger” in general, I try to do play-acting with them so they know what types of things a creepy person might say to convince them to go somewhere with them and how to respond.Though I think it’s a lot easier to talk about strangers than the fact that most kids who are abused in some way are victims of someone they know and trust. It’s much harder to have that conversation with a kid, IMO.
Another idea might be to use an id necklace or lanyard and attach a card with contact information on it
Practice makes perfect for us. When the kids were young we had them show us how to identify a cast member and practice telling them our names, resort, phone number (when they were a little older) and would stand back a ways and let them go do it on their own. Then walk up to the CM and talk about being lost, the CM’s are very helpful and will tell your kiddo if they did good job or give feedback like don’t be so nervous, we are here to help, etc. Our kids were able to follow the process even when they were very young. We quizzed them a few times during the week to make sure they remembered how to do it.
I guess I am a bad parent because I do not do any of these, however my daughter is never out of my sight and holds my hand or in a stroller in crowded areas. It is normally just her and I so I guess its easier to keep track of them when its only the two of you. 40+ visits and never a problem. Maybe I should have a back up plan.
On running shoe days, there is a label in our DDs shoes, and otherwise, a label inside a rubber Disney bracelet/anklet that we bought from Party City. This year I was wondering if that same label will fit/stick inside their MBs. It had their name, our name, cell number, dates of stay, and resort on it.