A few questions about yogurt

I am hoping that you guys can help me with a few questions I have about yogurt...

1. When is it ok to give other kinds of yogurt other than whole milk yogurt? The only whole milk yogurt I can find at our local grocery store is plain and I am running out of ideas to make it taste good! (which leads me to my other question)

2. What do you flavor/mix with your yogurt to make it more interesting/enticing to your kiddos? One of my guys will spit out the chunks of whatever I mix with it...

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Megan

 

I've been using lowfat yogurt since they turned one. I also can't find whole milk yogurt in the big containers, only those small YoBaby ones and mine would probably eat 2 of those each at this point. They drink whole milk and are up there on the growth charts, so I don't think they are losing out.

I mix in cut up fruit and wheat germ. But if yours don't like chunks, maybe you can try baby food fruit, or make your own purees.

 

I am giving mine the Yo Baby yogurt, but they are up to one container each a day so it gets pricey. I am debating buying the plain whole milk yogurt and pureeing fruit myself to add in. You could probably do it with baby food or applesauce as well.

I've thought of doing other kinds of yogurt, but mine really, really need the whole milk fat/calories.

 

I buy Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt and blend in my own fruit, almost always a banana and then either blueberries, mango, strawberries, peaches...or just the banana. You can add a splash of milk or OJ to make it a little more liquid. I have a magic Bullet and it's awesome for this. I then put it into a straw cup and they drink it from that. No mess!

 

We've had the lowfat plain yogurt forever (can't afford the yobaby) and they're huge, so I'm not worried about using it instead of whole milk... I add in homemade jam (hate high fructose corn syrup), babyfood prunes, applesauce, pureed peaches, and/or cheerios.

 

I love the idea of making it like a smoothie! I think I'll have to get some of those straw cups now.

I had been just adding a jar of fruit baby food, but then they started refusing it. We had a super busy past couple of weeks, so I just got the regular, already flavored yogurt.....but it's all low fat. :angry: My babies are really small for their age, so I don't like using it.

What I've done before that they really like is to mix in fruit like blueberries, peaches, mangoes, etc, and then I add a little bit of apple juice to sweeten it & then I freeze them in a little popsicle tray. They love it, but it's messy.....so I'm gonna try the straw cups next time!

....need to add that to my growing shopping list

PS - I forgot, Brown Cow makes a whole milk yogurt that's either Maple or Vanilla flavored & you can find it in the health food section. It's not very tasty, imo & I would still add fruit.

 

We give them whatever we buy for ourselves, which is usually whatever is on sale!

 

honestly, I just don't feel like I will take the time to be mix my own fruit etc in the plain yogurt. I have been giving the babies vanilla yogurt because I figured it had the least amount of sugar. It actually had the same amount as Strawberry etc. So my question is- if you're going to buy already made yogurt- which is the healthiest brand?

 

There's no reason why you HAVE to give whole milk yogurt -- although if you are giving regular yogurt, you might want to check it for preservatives and added sugar. Does your store sell organic lowfat yogurt? I think that would be better than mainstream lowfat.

I do buy the plain whole milk in big containers, but I mix it with baby food. I'm sure this is more expensive than if I pureed my own fruit and mixed it in, but it's worth it for the time savings (to me, at least). We also mix it with applesauce sometimes. And I try to mix in some wheat germ (at Kelly's suggestion) in hopes of helping them poop. I have tried mixing in chunks of fruit, but they don't like that -- they will eat chunks of fruit with their fingers, but if they're eating yogurt from a spoon, they want it to be 100% smooth.

 

I have tried doing chunks of fruit in their yogurt, but mine like it smooth, too. They will spit it out.

I still buy YoBaby. Mine split one container each day, so it's not that expensive yet and mine also need extra fat wherever they can get it - without resorting to icky fried food.