Good way to sweeten plain yogurt?

So I decided to stop buying the expensive 6 pack of YoBaby whole milk yogurt containers the other day. The boys LOVED their apple cinnamon and mixed berry flavors, but mommy got sick of paying $3.99 for 24 oz of yogurt (not to mention it was annoyingly runny). Instead I bought a 32 ounce tub of Stonyfield plain organic yogurt for $2.99. I then made the boys cereal like I normally do: 2 scoops cereal, some formula, about 2 oz of yogurt, and some Earth's best apple/blueberry pureed fruit. I even added a little bit more fruit to try and sweeten the yogurt some more. But the boys hated their cereal that morning and would barely even eat half. I don't really blame them, because the yogurt by itself isn't very good and the pureed fruit is more tart than sweet IMO. Soooo, anybody have any suggestions on how to sweeten the plain yogurt without adding straight up sugar? I really like the taste of vanilla yogurt myself, but Stonyfield apparently only makes that in low fat and I prefer whole milk for the boys at this age (or maybe our store just doesn't carry Stonyfield vanilla made with whole milk). Anyway, I'm doubting that adding a smidge of vanilla would work. But I'm open to suggestions!

 

Mine are over a year, so I mix organic honey and vanilla extract together, then stir into the yogurt. Mine love it and eat it same as the store stuff.

It's important to stir the vanilla and honey together first, or else the honey won't stir in easily.

 

Honey is not recommended for babies under the age of 1, although I see your two are really close so you might be okay. Applesauce used to work somewhat for me, also bananas are fairly sweet but, to be honest, my two never would eat the plain yogurt very well. Right now I buy the bigger sized tubs of yogurt but in vanilla flavor.

 

So approximately how much honey and vanilla extract do you mix together, and for how much yogurt? I'll hold off on doing so until their 1 year pedi checkup the beginning of June, to make sure the pedi is okay with that, since like y'all point out honey shouldn't be given to babies under a year. If he wants me to wait until they are 1 year adjusted I can suck it up and buy the more expensive YoBaby yogurt for a while longer. Thanks for the tips!

 

I used to mix the jarred fruits with the plain yogurt.

 

I live in a small town and could never find the larger containers of yogurt that are full fat, so I was stuck buying the yobaby, but my guys never really gobbled it up. I just happened to find a container of the full fat dannon plain yogurt, so I thought we'd try it.

I've been mixing about equal parts of this earth's best baby food mix - banana apricots and mixed grains with the yogurt, and they LOVE it! So maybe try some different fruit purees that are sweeter?

I also used the yogurt, whole milk, half a banana and a couple frozen strawberries (although I guess those may still be a no no for yours?), and made smoothies for their sippies, and they drank all of it!

Good luck!

 

I shop at a farmer's market (Sunflower and Sprouts) and they have stonyfield organic vanilla yogurt. You might try that! I used plain in the beginning and mixed it 1:1 with pears. They are the girls' favorite so they gobbled it up!

 

I would also give it a try with some sweeter fruits, maybe very ripe banana (they taste sweeter the more ripe they are) apricots or pears.

Honey is a good idea (if your pedi ok's it), but I don't really see much difference between putting in a spoonful of honey and putting in a spoonful of sugar.

 

To this day I still use pureed dried apricots. Naturally sweet, and the extra fiber helps regularity!! :laughing:
I stew unsulphured dried apricots in a bit of water, then puree & add to the yogurt as needed. I also add it to oatmeal, which they love. Works well mixed with apples, also!

Hope this helps!

 

if you're having difficulty getting the yogurt you want (organic, full fat, not to tart) you could try making it yourself. i made organic whole milk yogurt for the boys in the crock pot. it's super easy and you can adjust the cook time to make it less tart, which means you need less sweetening to flavor it. i used applesauce to sweeten. i made all of our stage 1 baby food, so i also had plenty of fruit purees on hand to add, which worked nicely.