Why Yogurt is an Excellent Food Choice for Your Baby or Child
As parents it’s our job to ensure that the foods we present to our little ones fulfil their nutritional needs, so that they can grow up healthy and strong. When babies begin to transition to solid food, it is recommended that you should keep the food you offer to them as pure and simple as possible. Getting your child used to real food without added sugars, artificial sweeteners or any of the other horrible additives and preservatives that food manufacturers often add to our food, stands them in good stead to make good food choices as they become older.
Yogurt is an excellent food choice for children for a number of reasons and can be offered from six months of age when your baby is starting on solids. At a time when your child’s tummy is fairly tiny and it doesn’t take much to fill it, yogurt is nutrient-dense, packing a lot of protein and calcium into a small amount. Not only that, due to the cultivating process it is easier to digest than milk. Yogurt also contains live organisms called probiotics that balance gastrointestinal flora. This means that it can help to regulate your child’s digestive system and prevent diarrhea and constipation.
But which yogurts are best? With so many flavours and brands available it can be difficult to know which yogurt to buy.
Paediatrician and other health care professionals do not recommend giving children under the age of 2 years old low fat yogurt. Their growing bodies actually need the fat and the extra kilojoules they provide to grow. So opt for a full fat option.
Greek yogurt has almost double the protein and half of the sodium of regular yogurt so it makes for an excellent choice to feed to babies and kids of all ages. Tamar Valley is the first yogurt in Australia that is specifically designed for children that is crafted with only premium ingredients and doesn’t contain any added sugar or artificial sweeteners, which is great news for parents who are concerned about the high sugar content of many products marketed towards kids.
Choice of vanilla, strawberry or tropical.
The Tamar Valley Greek yogurts for kids come in 110g squeezable pouches, making them an easy, mess-free snack to give to kids on the go.
Available from Coles, Woolworths and independent supermarkets. RRP $1.69.
Always check the nutritional values and ingredients. They vary a lot between brands. Some have a lot more carbohydrates in them than others.
There is good and bad carbohydrates.