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Deena Niemat stitched felt foods -- including this banana, fried egg, milk carton and vegetable assortment -- for daughter Cyra, 2.Photo by MARK HUMPHREY

by ROSE HANSON

Recalls of lead-contaminated toys prompted Rebecca Haacke to begin making play food out of felt for her children. She stitched and stuffed an apple, then sewed a ham sandwich with a felt lunch sack.

``It's not a run-of-the-mill, China-made toy,'' says Haacke, 29, of Orem, Utah. ``I get tired of my kids playing with plastic all the time.''

Another crafty mom, Miranda Kuskie, likes that her children can pile up separate strands of felt spaghetti instead of a plastic blob of noodles.

``They like to stick all the noodles in the pot and stir it up. And they can't really do that with the plastic food,'' said Kuskie, 25, of Nampa, Idaho.....

Read more at -  http://www.miamiherald.com/living/story/1405007.html