UK Children’s Healthcare Market Report 2025

Not all parents are confident in offering effective healthcare to their children, with 19% saying they don’t feel confident knowing which non-prescription remedies can be used together. This signals a need for brands to provide more guidance to empower parents to give their children the best care possible.

The primary threat to the category is the declining birth rate, reducing demand for products in the category in the long-term. This will mean brands, and the category, will struggle to grow.

However, brands have significant opportunities to evolve products and marketing to align with consumer needs. For example, 55% of parents who have used a pain relief product for their child have done so to ease an exercise-related ailment. Marketing and topical analgesics that tap into this unmet need can drive spending.

This report looks at the following areas:

• How to offset the negative impact of a declining birth rate on the children’s healthcare category
• The impact of trading down behaviours on the category
• Ways to respond to parents’ desire for holistic healthcare and lifestyle advice
• Claims and innovation that could encourage parents to spend more in the category
• Opportunities for brands to pivot into the VMS category

The children’s healthcare category faces a declining birth rate, forcing brands to pivot and innovate to manage the impact of reduced demand.

Georgia Stafford, Beauty & Personal Care Analyst

Market Definitions

For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has used the following definitions:

Children are defined as those aged 0-15.

As well as reviewing general attitudes and behaviours towards children’s health, this Report covers the market for children’s OTC and healthcare products, including remedies for the following ailments suffered by children:

• Cold and flu
• Fever and pain
• Head lice
• Allergies
• Skin conditions (including nappy rash)
• Teething pain
• Gastrointestinal upset (ie colic, diarrhoea, constipation).

A market size has been produced based on children’s OTC remedies for the above ailments, excluding products for head lice, skin conditions, and teething pain.

OTC medicines are defined as products with either a ‘P’ or ‘GSL’ licence, issued under the Medicines Act 1968 and related EU (European Union) legislation, and enforced by the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) and the CHM (Commission on Human Medicines). They are defined by the Proprietary Association of Great Britain as being:

“Specifically designed to treat the symptoms of common, minor and self-limiting ailments that do not require a medical diagnosis.”

The two categories of OTC medicines are:

• P – Pharmacy-only products, which can only be sold in a premise when a pharmacist is present and under their supervision
• GSL – General Sales List, which can be sold in any premise.

Excluded:

• POM (prescription-only medicines), which are prescribed by an appropriately qualified prescriber, usually a doctor, and dispensed by a pharmacist.
• Vitamin and mineral supplements.
• Products such as homeopathic and other complementary medicines.