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Early Years Nutrition

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KitchenOur Health Improvement Team working in maternal, infant and early years nutrition develop resources, provide information and support a variety of staff to deliver key nutritional messages. We work closely with:

  • Healthcare Staff
  • Children Services
  • Community Learning and Development Teams
  • Community/ Voluntary Organisations

We also provide training on how to promote nutritional requirements during pregnancy and breastfeeding, as well as for infants from birth to managing a balanced food intake for pre-school children.

Links to Resources

Nutrition in the News

Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods – Help for Low Income Families

The Best Start Grant is a new Scottish benefit to help parents and carers on low incomes with the costs of looking after children.
Best Start Grant has three one – off cash payments that can be applied for:

  • The Pregnancy and Baby Payment
  • The Early Learning Payment
  • The School Age Payment

Find out if you’re eligible and for further information visit Best Start Grant.

Best Start Foods

Best Start Foods is a new payment that will replace UK Government’s Healthy Start Vouchers in Scotland. The new payment will replace the paper vouchers with a new payment card, giving you more flexibility in how you use it.

Best Start Foods is paid to help you buy healthy foods for you and your baby. These foods are:

  • Milk – plain cow’s milk and first infant formula
  • Fruit and Vegetables – fresh, frozen or tinned fruit or vegetables (those with added sugar and salt are excluded)
  • Pulses – fresh, frozen, tinned or dried pulses like lentils, beans, peas and barley.
  • Fresh eggs

These foods are also listed on the back of the Best Start Foods card.
The Best Start Foods card is a Mastercard and can be used in a similar way to a normal bank card using contactless or Chip & Pin. It can be used in supermarkets and local shops that sell the healthy foods listed on the cards and takes bank card payments.

You can apply for Best Start Foods if you live in Scotland and get certain benefits or tax credits and are pregnant or the parent or carer of a child.  Find out if you are eligible and for further information visit Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods.

You can apply online or if you’d prefer to apply by phone, you can call 0800 182 2222.

Breastfeeding in Forth Valley
‘Together we can build a breastfeeding friendly Scotland’

Find out more about breastfeeding support groups running throughout Forth Valley:

  • The Breastfeeding Network – Forth Valley  – has trained peer support volunteers in your local area. At the moment the face to face support options are suspended due to Coronavirus but there are still lots of other ways for you to get in touch with them :-
    • Facebook page @BreastfeedingForthValley. You can use this to contact trained volunteers for support or just to chat to other mums.
    • Ring the National Breastfeeding Helpline on 0300 100 0212 (Open 9.30am – 9.30pm every day of the year) or message them on Facebook @NationalBreastfeedingHelpline.
    • Email ForthValley@breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk and they offer support via email or arrange to call you back to offer support over the phone or via a free video call.
    • Join in with a virtual breastfeeding group video chat to say hello to other mums and peer supporters without leaving the house! Details of the groups and links to join are on their Facebook page.
  • Local Breastfeeding Groups – Find your nearest breastfeeding group via our NHS Forth Valley Local Services Map.  Click the link then put your postcode into the box, under Service Type select Breastfeeding Group and then select the mile radius you wish to search then click Search.  Due to COVID-19 these groups are not currently running.
  • Parent Club – This website is full of helpful tips and advice on breastfeeding and common problems.
  • Breastfeeding – BDA Factsheet.

For further information on the Breastfeeding Friendly Scheme email Lesley Hetherington Community Dietitian / Infant Feeding Co-ordinator.

Free ‘Healthy Start’ Vitamins For ALL Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women!

Healthy Start vitamins, which contain Vitamin D, are available free to all pregnant and breastfeeding women in Scotland. Ask your midwife or health visitor for further information.

The Healthy Start vitamins contain:

  • Folic acid, which reduces the chances of babies having spina bifida
  • Vitamin D, which helps mothers’ bodies absorb calcium, allowing babies’ bones to develop properly
  • Vitamin C, which helps maintain healthy tissue in the body

More Information:-

  • Ask your midwife or health visitor for more information on suitable vitamin supplements for you and your baby or child.
  • Pregnancy Factsheet, British Dietetic Association, Food Factsheet.

Vitamin D Recommendations In Scotland

The vitamin D recommendations for people in Scotland have been revised due to the Coronavirus.

As people are being advised to stay at home and since it is difficult for people to get enough vitamin D from food alone, EVERYONE (including children and pregnant and breastfeeding women) should consider taking a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D.

This advice is especially important for people who are self isolating or shielding and for those that are indoors all of the time.

Click this link to find out more about Vitamin D : Advice for all age groups

Women and children who qualify for the Best Start Foods scheme in Scotland can get free supplements containing the recommended amounts of vitamin D. Please contact your health visitor for more information.

Vitamin D Recommendations

It is recommended that EVERYONE (all adults and children) age 5 years and above in the UK should take a 10 microgram vitamin D supplement daily, particularly during the winter months (October – March).

However there are groups who should take a vitamin D supplement all year round.

These groups include:

  • breastfed babies.
  • children aged 1 – 4 years.
  • pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
  • People from minority ethnic groups with dark skin as those of African, African – Carribean and South Asian origin.

Read more about Vitamin D – Scottish Government.

Vitamin D recommendations – information for new parents

Breastfed babies from birth up to one year of age should be given a supplement of 8.5 to 10 micrograms vitamin D per day.

Babies who are fed infant formula do not require vitamin D if they are having 500ml/day of infant formula or more, as infant formula already has added vitamin D.

Vitamin D – Are you getting enough?
Find out more:

Vitamin D – Are you getting enough? NHS Forth Valley Infographic Poster
Vitamin D – Are you getting enough? NHS Forth Valley Postcard
Vitamin D – British Dietetic Association Factsheet
Vitamin D – NHS

Breastfeeding booklet and posters from Health Scotland

The Off to A Good Start (OTAGS) booklet aims to help pregnant women, new mums and their families make decisions about how they will feed their baby. It gives practical advice, including: information about developing a close and loving relationship with your baby; the benefits of breastfeeding; the difference between breast milk and formula and how breastfeeding works (including positioning and attachment). Access the posters and new materials on Health Scotland’s website.

A Guide for Early Years Settings – Eating Well Sustainably

Eating Well Sustainably – A Guide for Early Years Settings – First Steps Nutrition Trust – Introducing sustainable food to Early Years settings is an opportunity to connect children, staff and families to more environmentally friendly habits and to nurture a sustainable food culture. The guide provides simple guidance on: planning sustainable menus, shopping for food, waste and storing food, cooking and preparing food and growing food.

Accessing Healthy Start Vitamins in Forth Valley

  • Ask your midwife or health visitor for further information on suitable vitamin supplements for you and your baby or child.

Health Improvement Staff

Lesley Hetherington Community Dietitian / Infant Feeding Co-ordinator
Based at Admin Offices, Falkirk Community Hospital, Westburn Avenue, Falkirk, FK1 5SU.

Useful Helplines and Websites

Helplines

Websites

  • Parent Club – Website is crammed full of the latest babies and toddler hints and tips from real parents and professionals. Visit for tips on eating, sleeping, playing and more!
  • Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods is a new Scottish benefit providing help to people and families on low incomes. The benefit is paid to women who are pregnant and families who have children aged up to three years old. It is paid as credit onto a pre-loaded payment card which you can use to buy certain foods. Best Start Foods is a new payment that replaces the UK Government’s Healthy Start Vouchers in Scotland.
  • Allergy UK – Advice for parents with a new baby – has information on feeding and weaning your baby.
  • British Dietetic Association Food Fact Sheets – Download factsheets on a range of nutrition topics – weaning, breastfeeding and vitamins in babies and children and many more….
  • Childsmile – Improving the oral health of children in Scotland.
  • Dairy Council -Site contains nutrition information and facts relating to milk and health.
  • First Steps Nutrition Trust – Site contains a range of resources – they are divided into the following sections : Eat Well – providing nutrition information from pregnancy through to early years, Infant Milks – providing information on infant formulas and it’s compliance with the WHO code and Making Infant Formula Safely.
  • Maternal and Early Years – This website is aimed at everyone working in the early years workforce. It covers a wide range of information and settings within the early years topic and provides information that is relevant to practitioners at many levels. A key element of the site is to provide the best possible links to up-to-date information, resources and support.
  • NHS – Your pregnancy and baby guide, Why Breastfeed? , Your babies first solid food, Childrens Meal Ideas.
  • One Parent Families Scotland – Informing, supporting and inspiring single parent families.
  • Ready Steady Baby – A website covering the time from the decision to have a baby, through pregnancy and birth and up until your baby is one year old. Find out more about Ready Steady Baby mobile app.
  • Ready Steady Toddler – A website to help you through the challenges and rewards of the toddler years.
  • Unicef – The Baby Friendly Initiative – Contains useful information and advice on all aspects of breastfeeding.
  • Vegetarian Society – Have a wide variety of resources from information booklets and recipes to campaign posters and postcards.
In an Emergency call 999 for health advice and reassurance call NHS24 on 111.
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