Tamar Valley Kids all natural Greek Yoghurt
Eight. That’s the number of brands with yoghurt pouches targeted at kids staring at me in the local supermarket. Then there are the different flavours for each brand. Shopping for yoghurt is a nightmare with my kids.
This is where the difference between adult and toddler shopping methods are increasingly noticeable. On one side you have me, the health advocate mum, wants my children to eat the least amount of artificial flavours, sugar and salt within items. On the other; my toddler, begs for yoghurts based on which one has her favourite character on the packet. By the time my toddler gets her way, I’ve realised that I’ve not even read the fine print to see what she and her 7-month old brother are really consuming.
I’d recently decided to shop alone and this resulted in me buying Greek yoghurt for the family.
Greek yoghurt offers many advantages for children. Its high protein levels keep you fuller for longer, excess lactose is removed due to how heavily it is strained (I am lactose intolerant and I suspect my children are sensitive to high lactose products), and it has less sodium and carb levels than other yoghurt varieties.
After discovering this, I was pleased to test the Tamar Valley Kids all-natural Greek yoghurt on my kids. I had to read the labels twice to make sure my facts were correct. ‘All natural…Greek yoghurt’. Surely this is too good to be true!
The Tamar Valley Kids yoghurt comes in 3 varieties: Vanilla, Tropical and Strawberry. By now we have figured out I’m a sceptic with ingredients, so I naturally turned the packet to read the label before offering it to the kids. Natural yoghurt, strawberry pulp, lemon pulp, natural flavours to name a few. These words jump out at me with comfort like a nanna putting a homemade rug around me telling me it’s going to be alright.
My toddler is quite the food critic, and my 7-month old has mastered his disgusted face when I dare introduce anything that is not pear purée. So I nervously held all three packets of the Tamar Valley Kids Yogurt out in front of the eldest critic. Looking momentarily confused she excitedly declares ‘STRAWBERRY!’, and I grin. Trying to find something she’ll like and that I’ll be happy with isn’t always the easiest task! The plan was to share packets with each other, but both kids gobbled up their own packets each.
When squeezing out the yoghurt onto the spoon for my 7 month old, it was noticeably different. It was…normal, just as Greek yoghurt should be. It wasn’t runny or watery, it was thick and full of goodness, and I was pleased to feed my son as much as he wanted knowing it wouldn’t upset his little tummy.
I found that after the kids had their yoghurts, my toddler wasn’t asking for more food that evening. She was content and full.
So off I went to do my weekly shopping again the following week. But this time I could only see one variety of yogurt to select for the kids, not eight.
Each Tamar Valley Kids Yogurt pouch is sold separately and is available now from Coles and Woolworths as well as some independent retailers
RRP $1.98
For more information, please visit: http://www.tamarvalleydairy.com.au/
