Yoghurt for Kids – Benefits, Risks and Recipes

Yoghurt is a healthy and tasty food, which is also very filling. As a parent, you must be looking to introduce this tasty food in your child’s diet, especially when it is available in so many delicious flavours. Today yoghurt or frozen yoghurt is available in many different flavours and children love eating yoghurt, but is it good for them? Let’s find out!

Is Yoghurt Good for Children?

Yoghurt is extremely healthy in its constitution and is highly recommended for children. Most kids will crinkle their nose when you term any food as healthy because they tend to look at it as an act of manipulation in getting them to eat something they don’t like. But yoghurt is an exception to this since not only kids love it, but they would also enjoy the various flavours that can be integrated with it.

What Are the Benefits of Eating Yoghurt for Kids?

There are a variety of benefits that yoghurt can offer to children, right from nutrition to protection for children and adults as well.

1. It Is a Rich Source of Calcium

Milk is usually considered essential for kids primarily due to it being a great source of calcium. But not all kids accept milk readily and calcium is not readily available in many other food items. Yoghurt is known to have a substantially higher concentration of calcium, that’s even greater than milk. A simple small cup of yoghurt can provide nearly 450mg of calcium to a child, directly impacting the bone development and making them stronger.

2. It Provides Good Probiotics

Milk is converted to yoghurt through bacterial activity, which leads to it storing a number of probiotic bacteria inside it. Kids having yoghurt regularly tend to have their gut replenished with the good bacteria, keeping their health strong and digestive processes streamlined.

3. It Is a Good Source of Energy

Yoghurt is a rich source of protein. It can provide your child with the energy he needs for the day. A small amount of yoghurt during school can give him a boost for the day.

4. It Helps in Weight Management

Gorging on junk food or having poor eating habits is what has resulted in childhood obesity becoming a pertinent problem for today’s generation. In order to prevent your child from getting obese and suffering from various health issues later in life, you can include yoghurt in his diet. Consuming yoghurt in good quantities helps kids feel fuller sooner than usual. This helps them restrict their consumption of excessive food while getting the energy they need to get through the day.

5. It Can Be Used in Various Dish Preparations

If your kids don’t like eating yoghurt in the form that it usually is, no issues. The ability of yoghurt to blend itself with almost any dish makes it extremely versatile to be used in multiple cuisines. Be it salad dips, fruit shakes, or the creamy-frozen variant of yoghurt in the right flavour, your kids will find themselves diving into it and getting the amount of yoghurt nutrition they deserve.

Are There Any Risks of Consuming Yoghurt?

With all these benefits that yoghurt brings, it still isn’t the white knighted saviour we might think it to be. There are certain side effects and disadvantages that kids might face on consuming yoghurt, maybe in a different form or if they have a certain health condition.

• Commercial yoghurt is not necessarily low in fat or calories. The usual ones have high quantities of them both, which might facilitate weight gain instead of reducing it. This will further aggravate obesity in a child and lead to further health conditions as he grows up. For a kid who is already battling with such phenomena or on a general basis, it is best to go for the non-fatty yoghurts that can provide nutrition without the excess fat and calories.
• Lactose intolerance is a major problem that creates a ton of issues and diet restrictions for kids, especially when they are young. This condition makes it difficult for kids to synthesize lactose in their body, making it necessary to eliminate its consumption altogether, which includes yoghurt, too. Yoghurt made from goat milk or soy milk could be alternatives that might work for the child.
• Commercially available yoghurts are not free of sugar and they do contain some amount of it for sure. Eating a lot of yoghurts can ramp up the sugar consumption in your child before you know it, leading to health issues developing within him. If your child is a huge fan of yoghurt, opt for low-sugar variants so he can have his fill without any problems.
• There are chances that the yoghurt you consume could have traces of a growth hormone. This is usually a hormone that is artificially injected in cattle, to help them grow speedily and produce more milk. Most brands do use milk from hormone-free cattle, making their yoghurt a safer option. However, if that isn’t the case, consuming such yoghurt could result in complications for some children, such as the onset of puberty way before the usual age, increase in the risk of cancer, and many other complications.

Healthy and Delicious Yoghurt Recipes for Kids

For kids that love eating yoghurt, there are tons of recipes that can be used to make yoghurt snacks for kids to be enjoyed at any point in time.

1. Fruit Smoothie With Yoghurt

Make a quick accompaniment for the evening snack that is soothing as well as full of nutrients for your child.

What You Will Need 

• Yoghurt
• Frozen strawberries
• Orange juice
• Bananas

How to Make It 

• Take the blender container and add the fruits and orange juice to it. Blend it together until it turns into a puree.
• Add yoghurt to it and blend it until it smoothens nicely.

2. Frozen Yoghurt With Strawberries

You need not rush to your nearest store to get frozen yoghurt. Make this one right in your home and let your child marvel at your culinary skills.

What You Will Need 

• Yoghurt
• Strawberries
• Honey
• Lemon juice
• Vanilla

How to Make It 

• Take a bowl and mix together all the ingredients, save for the strawberries, together.
• Add sugar or any other sweetener if your little one has a sweet tooth.
• Freeze a bowl and then add this mixture to it. Garnish it with strawberries, some whole, some chopped.
• Place this in the freezer for a couple of hours or more and then serve.

3. Yoghurt Pancakes

A beautiful way of making a delicious breakfast that is high in nutrition and lip-smacking in its taste.

What You Will Need 

• Blueberries
• Maida
• Baking powder
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla
• Egg, beaten
• Yoghurt
• Milk
• Salt

How to Make It 

• Take a bowl and mix maida, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in it.
• In another bowl, mix together vanilla, egg, and yoghurt.
• On a hot pan, add butter and pour the first batter on it to make pancakes. Let each side cook for about 3-4 minutes.
• Once all pancakes are prepared, top it off with yoghurt and a drizzle of honey and let your child devour it.

Yoghurt has always been termed as a healthy food item due to its various benefits. Certain precautions around its consumption are however necessary for kids, especially if there exist certain health conditions. By opting for the right alternatives and making yummy recipes from it, your kid can get the best out of it and stay healthy without any trouble.

Also Read: Smoothies for Kids