A five-month-old was the youngest of the 1152 children separated from their parents on Durban beaches this festive season. The infant was found crawling on the beach while her mother swam.Childline SA social worker Nomfundo Majola said the mother left the child in the care of friends."According to the mother, they were taking turns looking after the child so that the mother could swim. While she was in the water, her friends began drinking and left the child alone ," she said.Childline and the eThekwini municipality reunited 1151 lost children with their parents."There is one child still in our care. He is a 13-year-old boy who came to the beach with his friends. We are busy arranging transport for him," Majola said.Majola said that in some instances the lost children were at the beach without their parents but most often their parents were drunk."Parents bring a number of children with them and then, when they start to use alcohol, they canno t keep track of them," she said.Majola said that often parents saw no urgency in finding their lost children."Some parents come to us the next day for their children. This is very worrying. It is very traumatic to see young children crying for their parents - and it is also very traumatic for the child. "Majola said several parents had been charged with negligence during the festive season for losing their children, and others were charged with unruly behaviour.The number of lost children has fallen since the introduction of identification armbands for children visiting the beach during the holiday season .Cape Town police confiscated more than 12000 bottles of booze from beachgoers during the festive season, and Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London have complained of people ignoring the ban on bringing alcohol onto the beach...