If you are more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk as part of the Healthy Start Government Scheme

If you’re eligible, you’ll be sent a Healthy Start card with money on it that you can use in some UK shops. We’ll add your benefit onto this card every 4 weeks.

What you can buy

You can use your card to buy:

• plain liquid cow’s milk
• fresh, frozen, and tinned fruit and vegetables
• fresh, dried, and tinned pulses
• infant formula milk based on cow’s milk

You can also use your card to collect:

• Healthy Start vitamins – these support you during pregnancy and breastfeeding
• vitamin drops for babies and young children – these are suitable from birth to 4 years old

How to apply

Use the link below to apply:

Apply to the Healthy Start scheme

Collection points

You can find out about vitamin collection points here: Healthy Start - Vitamins (Starting Well)

If you are not eligible for the healthy start card, you can still collect low cost vitamins from your local family hub. Vitamin tablets for adults are £1.00 per pack. Baby and young children drops are £1.80 per pack.

For more information about the scheme, visit the Healthy Start website.

Vitamin and supplement advice when trying to get pregnant and during pregnancy

Folic acid and Vitamin D are recommended when trying to get pregnant and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy to improve you and your baby’s health and help prevent pregnancy complications.

This includes:

• 400 micrograms of folic acid every day – from before you're pregnant until you're 12 weeks pregnant, this is to reduce the risk of problems in the baby's development in the early weeks of pregnancy
• a daily Vitamin D supplement

Do not take cod liver oil or any supplements containing Vitamin A (retinol) when you're pregnant. Too much Vitamin A could harm your baby. Always check the label.

Low cost vitamins are also available from your local family hub or you can visit a pharmacy or supermarket.