Getting my daughter to eat a breakfast in the mornings that will keep her full until lunchtime can prove to be a challenge sometimes. Sometimes she’ll eat half of a waffle. Other days she’ll eat a tiny bit of cereal, then proclaim that she’s done, hop out of the chair and go on to do something else. The Danimals yogurt smoothies work for us for a few reasons:
- They go down quickly—before she gets bored or just tired of eating. She wouldn’t sit still long enough to sit at the table with a yogurt and a spoon, but since she can drink it and it’s fast, it’s not so bad.
- She likes the flavors. There are several of them to choose from, including Rockin’ Raspberry, Strawberry Explosion, Strikin’ Strawberry Kiwi, Swingin’ Strawberry Banana, and Cherry Berry.
- They’re small—3.1 oz—so she isn’t wasting half of one every time she opens one up and then leaves the bottle on the table for hours. Others I’ve seen are perfect for adults, but too big for kids.
- They’re easy to open, so she could technically go grab herself one and open it up without my help.
- While they’re not much on their own, if I pair a yogurt smoothie with that half of a waffle she’ll eat sometimes, I’m pretty confident she won’t be starving before it’s time to break out the lunchbox at school.
The nutrition panel isn’t as outstanding as I’d like, so I wouldn’t use these every day, but they do come in handy in a pinch. Like a lot of yogurt (Greek yogurt, which my daughter won’t eat because it’s tart and she doesn’t like the texture, might be the only exception unless you get into artificial sweeteners), this one has more sugar in it than I would like (14 g in the Strawberry Explosion flavor).
It also has two grams of protein, 10 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin D and 25 percent of the recommended daily value of calcium in addition to small amounts of other vitamins and minerals. Those amounts will vary based on the flavor.
You can purchase these in six, twelve, or twenty-four packs, but we usually just buy six at a time and spread them out over the next couple of weeks.
Photo credit: Dannon
