OBJECTIVE: To present, in an essay form, two distinct views on well-child care. METHODS: Using several different methods of historical analysis, the two most common views on well-child care are presented: the positivist one, whose foundation is essentially based upon historical facts, and that of social criticism, concerned with how historical facts are inserted in society at different levels. RESULTS: The coexistence of two distinct views on well-child care reveals two conflicting ideologies, but it does not invalidate the two different types of knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the understanding of well-child care through a historical approach does not allow for definitive conclusions on what it is or what it will be, it encourages reflections on more practical meanings, namely: the possibility to consider practices that gather an ensemble of positive knowledge without disregarding their limitations, and the formulation of well-child care practices concerned with social care, determined by several aspects, instead of by ideological interest.
Well-child care; history; ideology