An Ottawa letter carrier may have saved the life of a toddler found crouched in the snow in –15 C weather wearing little more than a T-shirt and socks.

Conrad Vallée said Friday that he was delivering mail Wednesday around 10 a.m. among brick homes near Heron Road and Airport Parkway, southeast of Carleton University, when he heard a child crying nearby.

Conrad Vallée followed the child's tiny footprints back to a nearby day-care centre.
(CBC)

"I saw the child sit on the snow, without shoes, without mitts, without coat, without hat — nothing," Vallée told CBC News. "So just little short pants and a T-shirt."

He picked up the boy, who he thinks was three or four years old, and followed the child's tiny footprints through the snow back to a day-care centre about 100 metres away.

There, Vallée delivered the child to his mother, who had just begun frantically searching for her son with the help of day-care staff. The child's mother had been inquiring about enrolling the toddler at the day-care centre.

It was believed the child had spent about five minutes outside in the extreme cold.

The Ottawa Children's Aid Society is investigating how the boy managed to wander off.