We always plan the healthiest meals for our kids. What they eat and whatnot is always on our mind. No matter how nutritious the food is they will benefit from it only if the food is digested well. This is where probiotics come in as a saviour.
Probiotics are the beloved companion of the digestive system. They help maintain the gut health and compete against harmful bacteria. The digestive tract already has helpful colonies of these bacteria but when kids fall sick and tend to have an upset tummy or after consumption of antibiotics during illnesses, they lose a few of them.
Consumption of probiotics can help replace them. You might also find the pediatrician recommending some vials of probiotics right when your child is sick to help their little tummies recover soon.
But it always helps to keep these bacteria in good numbers on regular basis which results in good gut health. According to Ayurveda, good gut health results in excellent health conditions of the person and that is exactly what we are aiming for as parents right.
Let’s see what foods can we include in our child’s diet to make sure they absorb all the nutrition that we provide through food.
1. Yoghurt/Curd
Yoghurt (Dahi) is a staple ingredient in many Indian homes and for the right reason. It contains the good bacteria lactobacillus which help cope during diarrhoea and is consumed as a home remedy. Set milk aside at night and you have fresh homemade yoghurt in the morning.
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Perfect to add it your child’s breakfast bowl or serve it with lunch with a spoonful of jaggery. Make pineapple or boondi raita. Add a spoonful of strawberry syrup on it to make it more appealing just like the store-bought ones. Make a dessert with some berries and yogurt layered with muesli and flavored syrup or honey. Yoghurt is one probiotic that I make sure to serve my kids atleast on alternate days with lunch.
2. Buttermilk
Buttermilk (Chaas) is nothing but a thinner version of yoghurt that is relished especially during summers in India. Yoghurt is said to have heat according to Ayurveda and warms up the body. The process of adding water to it and blending it subsides the heat making it more healthier and a perfect body coolant.
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A little roohafza makes it sweet and tasty for kids while adding spices like jeera, black salt and pudina makes it flavorful for adults.
3. Paneer/Indian cottage cheese
Panner is said to be an excellent source of probiotics. Serve it to your child as it is or pan fried with a little salt and pepper. It makes an excellent mid-morning snack.
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Make dishes like palak paneer, paneer tikka or butter paneer as per their liking. Make paneer bhurji and toast it with bread to make sandwiches.
4. Idli and Dosa
Make sure to make the soft idlis and crispy dosas once in a while. This staple food from south of India has loads of good bacteria which will help your child.
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Make carrot idlis, beetroot idlis and even palak idlis. Sannas from Goa are also loved by kids for their sweeter taste.
5. Dhokla
The batter for dhokla is first fermented overnight and then steamed. It is then garnished with sauteed mustard seeds, asafoetida, coriander leaves and freshly grated coconut. All the way from Gujarat, this lip-smacking recipe makes for a great Indian breakfast or an evening snack.
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You can make rice dhokla, besan dhokla, rawa dhokla and even palak dhokla to offer variety and health benefits to your child.
6. Pickles
India is also famous for a variety of pickles. Usually vegetables and even fruits are pickled alongwith spices or flavoured water. All these are now readily available in the market and are gut friendly with the amount of good bacteria in it.
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Make some fresh at home for your kids. They make a great accompaniment along with food.
These are the easiest ways to make sure your child’s gut health is maintained and their digestive system is right on track. Mix and match recipes for your kids and make them interesting and don’t forget to add the probiotic foods in the mix too.
This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla
My World with Eira 
Such a valuable post…very true that in these fast food/unknown ingredients times, as parents the inside our Indian kitchens wealth is tapped into. A definite share with my friends who have small kids and not so small ones too!!
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Probiotics are as healthy as keeps us light. I liked how you gathered all the recipes together in this post. Dhokla is love. Enjoyed reading your post.
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Probiotics are very important for the body. They help to improve the gut health and the overall immunity. Thank you for sharing wonderful recipes
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I loved the article and the detailing about probiotic foods. Being a foodie I know how much important to know the food value and perfect amount of consumption of each food item. Nice read.
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All these are really very healthy. Probiotics may help relieve acute constipation, colic, and acid reflux in healthy infants and children. They may also help prevent secondary infections and diarrhea in kids using antibiotics. Probiotics may even help prevent eczema and allergies in some children.
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Such a helpful post. All those dishes help a lot to prevent some chronic diseases. I always keep them in our daily breakfast dishes.
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The importance of probiotics cannot be stressed enough. These are some amazing suggestions. Especially stuff like Dosa, Idli, Dhokla is important in the case of kids who are lactose intolerant. Sandy N Vyjay
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These foods are certainly great for kids, as most kids i know love all the items you’ve listed, except pickles. Keeping the gut healthy is very import for the right growth in kids.
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this is a helpful post about probiotics , never knew idli and dosa are loaded with probiotics. I was only relying on curd and buttermilk all these days. Thanks for sharing
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Never knew pickles are rich in probiotics. Other food items u mentioned are regulars in our diet:)
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I do agree with you probiotics are one of the best ingredients to add to our regular diet. I guess fermented and sour things do have probiotics. This post indeed helps us, mothers, in choosing proper things for our families diet to meet probiotics needs.
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Happy to know that we are able to consume lot of probiotic food right from our own pantry. Except dhokla my kids eat everything..i love All of them.
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Very informative and useful post about probiotic food. My daughter loves eating all the above mentioned food items.
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This is a very important post. Indian food is rich in probiotics. We need not buy it in bottles from the supermarket. Particularly for children.
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Probiotics do help maintain a healthy gut. Our Indian food has curd/chhaas included as a regular, which’s beneficial for digestion.
* My elder son used to prefer curd, so I would set curd especially for him for each meal.
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Probiotics are very important to keep your gut healthy. Curds and buttermilk are the best source. You should include these two in everyday diet. Very informative article.
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Probiotics are very good for health. You have covered the best of them. Except for Dhokla the others are all part of my staple diet. I cannot do without idly dosa or yoghurt and buttermilk. Probiotics are light on the tummy and good for digestion.
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Excellent post. This goes to show that Indian food is rich in probiotics. Some things that are becoming popular now have been our staple diet for years I just love curd and buttermilk.
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pickles and probiotics who knew, now i have a reason to have some
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Curd is a staple food for us south indians. In fact I cannot survive without curd….one of the reasons why I have been unsuccessful in turning vegan. Though I love pickles, I didn’t know about the probiotic part of it!
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I am so happy to see that most of the probiotics I am well using regularly, especially the curd, idli, and dosa, go without a miss in every week’s meal.
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I was worried coz my kids dont take curd very well…glad to know there are other optipns that i have been giving them…👍
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Probiotics are really healthy for everyone and the ones you mentioned are really a must have at least one item per day if not all
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Probiotics are important, thank you for sharing this post. I guess I am using all of them at least with myself 🙂
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Probiotics are so important in our diet. I have buttermilk or curd every night after my meal. It is something that I have always followed since childhood. I did not know pickles also act as probiotics, that’s good to know.
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I agree, we should include probiotics in our kids diet. Your list is perfect example of healthy choices. Very informative post.
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These are great options to include probiotics into kids diet. My kids love curd and paneer
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Good to know about probiotics in this post. I am happy that dosa and idli are also in the list, which is easy to make kids eat and paneer is all time favorite.
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so so so amazing 6 Healthy Probiotic Foods For Your Kids , my kids after seeing the yakult ad keep asking for it
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I absolutely loved your post about the six healthy probiotic foods for kids. I’m pretty sure a lot of new parents are going to benefit from it. As a parent to two grown-up kids, I wish I had known about this earlier!
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very nice post and helpful. usually only the little bottles of probiotic are promoted and no one really talks about food items which can be given to kids – i prefer this for their health that to get store brought items.
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Except for dhokla and pickles my kids eat everything else and it’s a part of their daily diet. Thankfully Indian diet has a good choices to include probiotics in the diet.
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As a mom everyday I strive to give healthy food to my child and this interests me immensely. Saving this and including in our meal plan
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Kids health is the top most priority for every parents and even I love to add buttermilk daily once in their meal.
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Except Dhokla, we add almost all the options from the list I out diet. Luckily my entire family is yogurt and buttermilk lover and same goes for idli-dosa.
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Thanks for sharing this amazing list dear. It is really great that our routine Indian foods are great for health too. probiotics are essential for for our gut health and we should try to include these in our kid’s diet too.
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Now we know why any hearty meal would be accompanied by lassi, pickles etc, they help in digestion and give us the much needed Vitamin B12 too. Nice post !
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That’s a great list accept pickles kids are having every thing on the list.
Probiotic is important for healthy Gut.
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