Mum Explains How She Used 'Looking Loudly' Method To Find Her Lost Child

A mum has revealed how a simple TikTok hack helped her track down her three-year-old when she went missing in a large play area.

Krista (@krista.piper) said she’d managed to go seven years without losing one of her children – but when it did eventually happen in a very public place, she remembered to “look loudly”.

In a matter of minutes her daughter Lily was found safe and sound.

“Another mom actually found her for me and found her way faster than if I had done what I normally would have done,” said the wedding photographer in an emotional TikTok video recalling the gut-wrenching moment she lost sight of her child.

So what does “look loudly” actually mean? It’s a method where a parent shouts a description of what their child looks like and is wearing, rather than their name.

So, for example: little boy, bright green t-shirt, blue shorts, age seven, black hair. 

The idea is that rather than relying on a young child to respond to their name, you’re putting dozens, if not hundreds, of people on high alert to find the child. 

Krista, who has two children, recalled: “I started calling her name. Right after I started calling her name, a little lightbulb went off in my head and I remembered a TikTok I had seen probably over a year ago.”

The TikTok video, she said, was of a mum who had lost her child in a supermarket and instead of shouting her child’s name, she shouted the description of what her child was wearing. 

“So that is what I did,” said the mum-of-two. “I stopped calling out her name and I started yelling: little girl, pink shirt, pink Minnie Mouse shirt ... I’m sure people thought I was a little crazy.”

She started to hear other mums repeating it, and within a couple of minutes another parent said she’d spotted a girl fitting that description, and she was reunited with her daughter.

“It got the job done really fast,” she added. 

Some people commented on the post to say they know of parents who’ve used the tip and successfully found lost kids.

“This happened at the pumpkin patch last year,” wrote one person in the comments. “Hundreds of people and a mom was screaming about a girl with a blue bow and found her fast.”

Another said: “I heard a mom doing that one day at a park. Kid was fine and was playing but people pointed her out quickly.”

One parent said hearing a description of a child would definitely spur them into action, more so than hearing a name being yelled: “As a mom, if I hear someone yelling a name [I] probably don’t think much of it, but yelling a description is like a call to action to moms!”

Children’s author and mum-of-three Jess Martini has been incredibly vocal about the technique on TikTok.

In some of her previous videos on “looking loudly”, which have millions of views, the author also advised parents to dress their kids in bright colours when going to busy, public places and also to take a photo of their child before going out.