THE votes have been counted and the winners from the hundreds of Cute Kids that entered our popular annual competition can at last be revealed.

More than 250 bonnie youngsters appeared in these pages after having their photos taken by Limelights in the Liberty Centre, Romford.

And after hundreds of phone calls and texts, and coupons were checked by our Cute Kid 2010 elves, the winners of the three categories by a small margin emerged as Laila Sargent, four, Connie-Leigh Prause, two, and Esin Naz Benli, eight months.

All three parents were overjoyed and more than a little surprised when the Recorder broke the news to them this week, especially as they were given the thumbs up by other readers.

Laila’s mum, Francoise, of Dudley Road, Romford, said: “That’s excellent, she will like that when we tell her, she loves posing for the camera. The funny thing is we had two photos and they didn’t choose the one we liked the best.”

And Connie-Leigh’s mum, Jodie, of Marks Road, Romford, said: “That’s absolutely brilliant, I’m chuffed to bits. It’s such a surprise, there are so many children in it.”

It’s not all about the winning though as the saying goes and runners up prizes also go to second and third places, Kayla Bosser, five, Riley Boyce, five, (37 month to six years) and Gracie Comitti, three, Morgan Myrto, two, (19 to 36 months).

The runners-up in the 0-18 months category are Zak Brown, 10 weeks, and Ronnie Adams, 17 months.

The winners get a 12x20 canvas framed portrait, second places get a �50 Limelight voucher and third place gets �35.