The First 1000 Days developed by Danone Baby Nutrition is a special booklet aimed at promoting a child’s health and nutrition in the first two years of their lives.

With contributions from Ireland’s own Neven Maguire and leading Irish dieticians, the book holds a wealth of knowledge and tips for the health-conscious family.

We were delighted to be given the opportunity to get in touch with Irish chef Neven Maguire to chat about his recipes, young twins and this exciting new initiative.

“Danone [Baby Nutrition] would’ve approached myself and my wife Amelda in January, and so they called us into for a briefing day where they showed us all the implications on how to eat from the moment the mother is pregnant to the first 1000 days and how that affects the child’s development and nutrition” said Neven.

“For me as a chef was pretty impressive, we just knew “wow this is something very special”.  We were very privileged to be asked and we’re really excited because we have twins ourselves and we’re learning too! But also hopefully I can maybe educate people towards healthy eating.”

What do you make of the booklet itself?

“There's so much work and effort put in. I contributed with a couple of recipes and worked with lots of nutritionists - they asked me for three recipes, so I gave them recipes and they said “Ok Neven we need to lose the amount of salt, take out the butter", so that was really good for me to know that.

I’ve never cooked much at home with the twins myself and it’s a great time in my life. I just like cooking different things for them and when we eat at home, the twins eat exactly what we’re eating, there’s nothing that we’d cook differently.

I make things in batches and then freeze them, and then when I’m not here and my mother-in-law is here minding them and Amelda’s here, they can just take them out of the freezer and away they go.

It’s about giving your kid’s the best food and we want guidance and I suppose with this booklet which is lovely, it’s very every day, simple food.”

What was the first recipe that you tried after the First 1000 Days launched?

Well actually, I was doing a demonstration and the very first recipe that I did was the smoothie. So there was celery, cucumber, yoghurt, bit of honey. It was delicious and I made that up for the twins!

It was great to see their reaction because they had never taken raw vegetables in smoothie, I always put fruit into it, so that was a lovely thing to start off with.

But there’s loads of recipes and funnily enough, Amelda kept saying when she saw the booklet “god, I’m going to be able to try this.“

She doesn’t realise how good she is at it to be honest with you! So she can follow these recipes for herself and cook for the twins.”

Do you ever hide certain foods in meals to encourage fussy eaters?

“I’m not an expert and that could be all ahead of me but I believe as a chef, first of all what we eat they eat is very important but also, you’ve got to give kids six to ten times to keep tasting, tasting, tasting.

In France, I learned something very interesting I heard on the radio, was that the very first thing they give their child is a potato and leek soup. The very first thing when they’re weening. I couldn’t believe that, I thought it was really impressive, they blend it up!

They would eat fish. The twins would be eating fish twice a week and they love it. The love salmon and they love white fish, prawns, crab, they’re not afraid to try anything!"

Were you very nutrition conscious before Danone Baby Nutrition approached you?

“Yes and no. I would definitely be more focused than I was. I love good food, but it [the First 1000 Days] has definitely readjusted the way I cook at home and the way I think about food for my twins and for myself."

Do you ever get stuck at home for recipe ideas at home?

“Never thankfully! I would like to think because I’m a chef, what I cook at home is very simple. It’s not fancy food, it’s not restaurant food, it’s tasty home cooking, fresh food and I think that’s the whole idea, the whole initiative, is just educating people about cooking seasonal food.

When you cook with the seasons you get the best flavour the get the best value. We’re all trying to watch our money and it’s not easy to put food on the table but I think if you cook seasonal food it’s really really important.”

Would you be conscious about buying Irish produce?

“Very. I’m really really self conscious about that because I think we’ve the best food in the world here.

I mean if you go to your local craft butcher and buy these lesser used cuts which are great value and full of flavour, you’re getting the best value and the best quality food.  We do have great food [...] we’re very lucky.”

I have to compliment and say well done to Danone because it’s a great initiative and I think there’s so much excitement to this. It’s very important that people would use this [booklet], there’s loads of great tips that [and] loads of really practical and friendly advice."

Many thanks to Neven for taking the time out to chat with us. You can find more about The First 1000 Days on their website here.

Pics via MacNean House