Product Review: Danimals Crush Cups

Since the end of school last spring Kiddo has been begging me for Danimals Crush Cups. These are yogurt cups marketed to kids, whose primary selling point is the squeezable cup which allows you to eschew a spoon and make tremendously rude noises slurping your yogurt.

Naturally I said no.

Now, my no has real reasons behind it. First, I want my kids to understand that they can't have everything they see on television. Second, because of his ADHD Kiddo cannot have any Red Dye 40. That's a whole 'nother blog, but the short version is that there's a ton of anecdotal evidence that in kids with clinical hyperactivity (like Hyperactive-Impulsive ADHD) Red 40 aggravates the symptoms. The FDA isn't buying it, but in the UK and several European countries it's been banned for that reason. I know that when Kiddo was having truely horrible behavior problems in preschool he was having yogurt with Red 40 every day, and that his behavior issues lessened when we got the dye out of his diet.

Anyway, we don't have Red 40 in the house, anywhere. And I've found that it's especially prevalent in yogurt. It was quite challenging to find yogurt (which the kids think is desert, and may actually have two or three servings during the day) that had no artificial dyes and didn't cost a fortune. Trix yogurts are out. "Light"Yoplait is out, but most of the regular variety is okay. Store brands like Lucerne are pretty bad about it. Organic yogurt is always dye-free, but very expensive.

Hence my hesitation on buying a kid-marketed yogurt. One day in the store Kiddo, who has learned to spot Red 40 in the ingredient lists, picked up the Danimals Crush Cup package and said "Mom, I don't see the yukky red here, do you?"

I'll be darned. No artificial dyes or flavors. No corn syrup. Twice the calcium of some brands. 10% RDA of protein. And live cultures called "LLG" that they're particularly proud of. This is the nutrition info from Kiddo's favorite, Blueberry.

The price point isn't bad, about $2.99 a four-pack when it's not on sale, or 75 cents each. At Sam's Club I found a pack that worked out to about 50 cents a piece, which puts it at the same price as generic yogurt on sale.

And best of all, this morning I found a coupon rebate offer! Bulk store purchases like Sam's don't qualify, but since the Sam's pack doesn't have all the flavors the kids like that shouldn't be a problem. You must purchase the qualifying products by October 31, 2009 and mail it immediately (they must have it by November 16). The number of $1 coupons you receive will depend on how many products you purchase to qualify. Get your copy of the rebate form here: Dannonomics Rebate

Final Review: Nice to see a kid-marketed product that appeals to my over-protective mom-sense! Not only has a lot of thought gone into the healthiness of the product but they address hot parent concerns like artificial dyes and flavors. Kiddo thinks he's getting a great treat because he knows I usually say no to stuff on commercials (the commercials are annoying, but the product is so good I won't count it against them). And, as the final bonus... the spoons come home in his lunch box. Dannon's Danimals Crush Cups get my approval.