Olympic Gold medallist Rebecca Adlington has launched the UK’s first Baby TRYathlon, set up to promote the importance of nutrition for babies and toddlers.

During the event, a team of seven infant TRYathletes aged between 12 months and 30 months was fronted by Albie, the two-year-old son of former Olympic swimming star Adlington.

The Baby TRYathlon was created by SMA PRO Follow-on Milk and Growing up Milk and was designed to celebrate happy, active play at the earliest stages of activity, movement, and coordination. Typical triathlon events include swimming, cycling and running but were replaced for the baby event with “The Crawl, The Push and The Beanbag Throw”.

The Baby TRYathlon promoted research that found that 47.7 percent of toddlers in the world are iron deficient (World Health Organization) and 20 percent of children aren’t getting enough Vitamin D2 (UK Government).

The event itself was a culmination of a three-week campaign by SMA PRO Follow-on Milk and Growing up Milk to raise awareness of the importance of Vitamin D and iron in children’s diet, specifically the role of Vitamin D in helping to support the normal growth and development of bones, and iron’s help in supporting normal cognitive development.

Nestle has said that, ahead of the event, the infants were “put through an ‘intensive’ three-week coaching programme, created by SMA Nutrition experts” including Children’s Sleep Coach Leigh Swanborough, Chartered Paediatric Physiotherapist Ruth Bayliss and SMA Nutrition expert Dr Amna Mahmood.

Commenting on her role in the event, Olympic star Adlington said: “Nutrition became a significant part of my daily routine to be my best as a swimmer, and so when I became a mum I was keen to understand more about child nutrition and how I could help my child flourish.

“However, the information on diet and vitamins can be confusing and overwhelming, leaving parents wondering wher to turn.

“I had little idea about how Iron and Vitamin D help support with cognitive development and the normal function of the immune system within toddlers. As a spectator watching Albie, I’m proud to see him take his first steps (and stumbles) as a toddler TRYalthlete with the other little ones. It’s a hilarious and positive celebration of play, underpinned by an important purpose with essential advice from the experts at SMA Nutrition,” continued Adlington.

Meanwhile, Ingrid Hayes, Head of Marketing at SMA Nutrition shared: “Our expert team at SMA Nutrition have been dedicated to understanding the unique nutritional needs of babies and young children for over 100 years.

“We believe that the early years are a unique opportunity for parents to impact their children’s lives. For this reason, we’ve made it our mission to provide the support, information, and products to support parents. The aim of the first Baby TRYathlon was to raise awareness of the importance of Vitamin D and iron in a toddler’s varied and balanced diet and to celebrate the joy of the early years. Every child is a winner and, unlike the adult version, taking part really is everything.”