Puericultura e a atenção à saúde da criança: aspectos históricos e desafios

This paper reviews the history of puericulture and attention to children’s health in Brazil and establishes relationships between this history and the concept of childhood at different times and within different sociocultural contexts, and between this history and the way in which the Brazilian healthcare system has been organized. The characteristics of the Brazilian educational process, the state’s role in healthcare, the creation of the national health system and the creation of the children’s and adolescent’s laws are highlighted as determinants of healthcare that consider children and their families as subjects under the law. These important achievements within Brazilian society have stimulated changes in clinical practice and, especially, in childcare. Today, the state no longer has a controlling role over families’ childcare through regulation of individuals’ conduct. Rather, child care is undertaken scientifically, through a multiprofessional team in partnership with families and communities.