Yoplait Kids – getting better for you all the time

I never buy children’s yogurt because I hate all the crap they put in it to make it attractive to kids. There is no reason why yogurt needs to full of sugar or artificial dyes for kids to find it palatable.

So when Mom Central sent me samples of Yoplait® Kids peach and strawberry-banana yogurt and mixed berry yogurt drink, I was prepared for something about as wholesome as a trip to the donut store.

New and Improved Indeed

I was pleasantly surprised. First Yoplait Kids has 25% less sugar than the leading kid’s yogurt. That’s 26 grams of sugar per 8 oz. vs. the usual 35 grams of sugar per 8 oz. I was also pleased to see that they use sugar instead of corn syrup. Yoplait Kids is low fat and has vitamins A and D, live and active cultures, and Omega-3 DHA added to help brain development. Not perfect but better than your average kids’ or generic store brand yogurt.

They also use beet juice concentrate and annatto extract to color the yogurts. If your child is sensitive to artificial dyes, this may be a product for you to try. Also, the texture is smooth, with no chunks that could potentially choke young children learning to eat solids.

The Packaging

I wasn’t entirely thrilled with Yoplait Kids’ tie-in with characters from Nick Jr. TV programming as carton character bombardment is always annoying. Still, I was happy that I could toss the cardboard container and the #2 plastic cups and bottles into the recycling bin. Our fancy organic yogurt cups are #5 plastic, which our recycling company won’t take.

I also like the serving size of the containers – 3.5 oz. for the yogurt drink and 4 oz. for the yogurt cups. This is perfect for my daughter who has trouble finishing a 6 or 8 oz. cup of yogurt.

The Taste, Suggestions and a Coupon

Of course, with all the sugar, Yoplait Kids yogurt is yummy. The kids went through the yogurt and drinks in a couple of days. I’d like to see Yoplait further reduce the sugar and add chunks of fruit for the older kids. Maybe they should have a whole milk baby version, a low fat toddler version, and then a chunky version with larger serving sizes for older children.

I will definitely be buying Yoplait Kids in the future, mostly to get my kids to stop eating their father’s expensive organic yogurt. It’ll be nice to pack the drinks in my son’s lunch and perfect to take to the park or camping. If Yoplait Kids sounds like something you’d be interested in trying, click here to get a coupon for a free package.