Yogurt: It’s A Baby Food

I vividly remember the thrill of starting solids with my boys. I couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces the first time new flavors hit their tiny tongues. Fun and discovery should be themes in these first few months of starting solids. Your baby is still getting much of her nutrition (and calories) from breast milk or formula. So think about this time as exploration—introducing baby to different tastes and textures and getting her ready to transition to a diet of table food at age one.

Fruit and veggie purees are excellent for delivering vitamins, minerals, and healthy plant compounds like antioxidants. Cereal and pureed meat offer iron and protein. But it’s also smart to add yogurt to the mix, both at snack time and as a meal time staple.

Fat: In the first two years of life, babies need about half of their calories from fat for the enormous amount of brain growth that’s happening. The first ingredient in YoBaby yogurt is organic whole milk!

Calcium and Vitamin D: Your child needs these two nutrients throughout childhood for developing strong bones and teeth. YoBaby is a natural source of calcium, and it’s fortified with vitamin D, a nutrient a lot of people (including children!) don’t get enough of.

Many babies enjoy the flavor of plain yogurt, so don’t be afraid to serve YoBaby Plain straight up with a spoon. It is unsweetened, so you can use it as a base for mixing in your own favorite purees to create snacks and well-rounded meal. A few ideas to get you started:

Breakfast:

YoBaby Plain + blueberry puree + baby oatmeal

Lunch:

YoBaby Plain + well-mashed egg yolk + sweet potato puree

Dinner:

YoBaby Plain + chicken puree + apple puree

Snack:

YoBaby Plain + carrot puree + pear puree

You can also add spices and flavorings to these combos after your baby has had success with the foods on their own so you can more easily spot any kind of reaction. And just with introducing foods, try one spice or seasoning at a time and wait a few days before trying another. Some to try: a sprinkle of cinnamon added to plain yogurt and sweet potatoes or a bit of ginger stirred into yogurt and pureed pears. Adding these kinds of flavors now may help your child become a more adventurous eater later!

You can also choose YoBaby flavored yogurts, which already contain organic fruit purees such as blueberry, mango, and banana, plus natural colors from plants (never artificial food dyes). Another option is to mix the flavored yogurts with plain. Your baby will still get the sweet fruit flavor with slightly less sugar. (Shhh, it’s a trick I still use with my big kids!)