Healthy Start

Healthy Start helps you give your family the very best start in life

What is NHS Healthy Start?

Healthy Start supports pregnant women and young families to eat well and get the vitamins they need for healthy development, helping you give your family the best start.

Healthy Start prepaid card

If you're pregnant or have a child under 4, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk.

You could receive the following amounts depending on the age of your child(ren):

• £8.50 per week if you have a baby aged under one year
• £4.25 per week if you're pregnant
• £4.25 for each child aged under 4 years old

You can use this to buy from local shops:

• plain cow’s milk (whole, semi-skimmed, or skimmed) - it can be pasteurised, sterilised, long life or UHT
• plain fresh or frozen fruit and veg (fruit and vegetables with no added ingredients), whole or chopped, packaged or loose
• infant formula milk that says it can be used from birth and is based on cow’s milk

All pregnant women under 18 are entitled to free vitamins and a Healthy Start prepaid card.

Healthy Start vitamins

You can claim free vitamins if you’re pregnant or trying for a baby, are a mum with a baby under 1 year and/or have children under 4 years. These include:

• multivitamins formulated especially for pregnancy and motherhood
• vitamin drops formulated for babies and children

You can use your Healthy Start card to get vitamins for free.

For more information please visit Flying Start's Healthy Start Vitamins webpage