When the time came to wean my second daughter from breastmilk to cow’s milk, we had a bit of a problem. Because she hated the taste of it and for a while would refuse it all together, we had to get a little creative. This is how we started giving her whole milk yogurt to supplement the lack of actual milk she was drinking. Pediatricians recommend that babies are breastfed for a least 1 year, the World Health Organization suggests at least 2 years. After this most pediatricians recommend offering your child whole cow’s milk. This is due to the high fat and protein content of cow’s milk. These things are very important for brain development in young children. Cow’s milk is not the only way to get this valuable nutrition, there are other options for those kids whose systems cannot handle whole milk, but in my opinion it’s easier for us to go with this option. I’ll update you if that ever changes!
We tried giving our 1-year old plain, whole milk yogurt, and she would eat it but without much enthusiasm. This is when I decided to look into flavoring it for her. This is also when I remembered that I purchased a baby pouch squeeze station with my first daughter, and I would finally get to use it again! I previously wrote about making baby food with this amazing device. With my second child I haven’t done much of that but as you can see, it still gets use!
How to Flavor Plain Whole Milk Yogurt
There are many ways you can flavor these. I’ll tell you right now that I did this the absolute lazy way. I DID NOT buy a bag of apples, wash, peel, boil and mash them for apple sauce (this time lol). I did not wait until strawberries were in season, wash, boil and puree them! I bought unsweetened apple sauce and a bag of frozen strawberries from Walmart. This saved me so much time because my ingredients were mostly ready to go. All I needed to do was thaw and puree the strawberries and boom, it was ready. I didn’t even rack my brain too hard coming up with which fruit combinations I wanted to use. I literally copied what Gerber has already done.
If you need inspiration, here are a few combinations to try:
Apple Banana Raspberry
Apple banana Strawberry
Apple Banana Peach
Butternut squash with cinnamon
*adding honey or syrup for extra sweetness
DIY Apple- Strawberry Squeeze Whole Milk Pouches
Ingredients
– Plain, whole milk yogurt (I used Stoney Field organic probiotic yogurt)
– Apple sauce, unsweetened
– Frozen Strawberries (16oz bag)
– Honey or syrup for extra sweetness *optional
*The amounts of each will depend on the number of pouches you would like to make and your desired yogurt to fruit ratio
Tools
– Measuring cups
– Large mixing bowl
– Mixing spoon
– Funnel* optional
Instructions
1. Thaw frozen strawberries and drain extra liquid.
2. Add the strawberries to the blender and blend until either liquified or evenly blended.
3. Pour into a bowl and add 1-2 cups of apple sauce. Stir the fruit mixture and taste. Add more applesauce if you desire.
4. Add whole milk yogurt 1 scoop or ½ cup at a time. Stir until completely blended, then repeat until desired taste is reached.
5. Add honey or sugar to sweeten if needed
6. Assemble your squeeze station and use a funnel to pour yogurt mixture into each food funnel.
7. Push down the plunger and fill the bags.
8. When you’re done, label each bag by the yogurt’s expiration date.
As you can tell, I did this fast a loose. I personally did find other mom blogs with precise measurements for all of the ingredients, which I did plan to follow. But once I got started, I naturally started to tweak and customize the recipe for myself. I assumed you would do the same, so I didn’t trouble myself with recording my every movement!
My daughter loves these pouches. I love them even more, simply because I know they are a healthy source of nutrition for her growing body. I usually make about 8-10 of these pouches at once and keep them refrigerated until she wants one.
Try it out for yourself and let me know how it goes!
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