In this paper the authors discuss the meaning that has been attributed to the term "integral care of children's and adolescents's health", highlighting its several interpretations, with a view to overcoming fragmentation of care. To start with, they present the articulations by the movement for children protection with the society as a whole, following with the political policies for the care of children land adolescents in Brazil. In the second part, they discuss nursing strategies to view children as to their biological aspects, their subjectivity and social dimension. They conclude that the present needs for the care of hospitalized children converge to: considering children in their organic aspects as well as their subjectivity along with parents' and other relatives' involvement in the processes of their children's health promotion, prevention of diseases, diagnosis, therapeutics and rehabilitations other concerns are the organization of work in multidisciplinary and multiprofessional teams, and the understanding of health institutions as service production spaces where complex social relations are established. Therefore, integral care must not be seen as an idealized theoretical approach, as a mixture of theoretical framework ranging from ecology to molecular biology. It implies hard work for daily building concrete interaction, with political determination for implementing changes.
integral care; children; adolescent; care