Hannah Hayes, of Chicago, only lost her son at London's Heathrow Airport for a few minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime. "It terrified me," she says. "I always thought [of] an international airport as someplace where child snatchers would hang out."

Her son had been playing at a car racing vending machine, and suddenly he was gone. "There were so many people around," Hayes says. "He has bright red hair so he's hard to lose, but he was so little I couldn't see him in the crowd. I found him only a few feet away at another game, but I'll never forget that feeling." She now dresses her son in lime green or orange shirts when they travel.

Neal Rawls, a veteran police officer, certified child protection investigator and author of Be Alert, Be Aware, Have a Plan: The Complete Guide to Personal Security (The Lyons Press, 2002), believes that being prepared for danger isn't paranoid, it's smart. "The most important thing any parent can do is to talk to their children about safety," Rawls says. "In the year 2000, one out of every seven victims of sexual assault reported to the police was under the age of 6."

Parents should watch their kids and remember that predators prowl for unattended children, Rawls says. Crowds are even bigger at certain times of year, such as during the holidays, and parents are more easily distracted. Everyone wants their children to be polite, but parents have to make sure their kids will not easily comply with just any adult's orders. "It's a careful balance, but predators often look for children that are quiet or appear shy or lost," Rawls says. "Young people must be taught to cause a scene if they feel threatened."

If kids feel they are being abducted, teach them to sit down in the middle of the floor or grab the nearest person's leg and scream, "That's not my daddy" or "That's not my mommy!"

Point out security personnel and clerks to your children. Make sure they can recognize these people and know to go to them if they are lost. Have a meeting place for older children in case they become separated from you. One strategy is to write your cell phone number on your children's arms in case you lose each other.

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