Some remarkable features of the brazilian social policies, along the"first government of Getúlio Vargas (1930-45), are here outlined in an historical perspèctive, focusing on the health policies directed to the children. Certain ideological principies that characterized the "varguista" social policy are identified as well as their influence on the organization and functionning of two services for the health of the children: the "Hospitals-Schools Service" and the "Laboratory of Child-Biology", with a special concern for the connections between ideology and public policies.