ABSTRACT
The term childcare is attributed to pediatricians but has been used by the Family Health Strategy. This article makes a brief history of childhood and the evolution of its care until the creation of the Unified Health System (SUS). The premise is that childcare has always meant child care. This essay aimed to understand the history of childcare and contribute to update its meaning and importance for early childhood care in the context of Primary Health Care, based on the narrative review on child care and childcare in the scientific literature and documents from the Ministry of Health. Childcare has been updated with the evolution of actions for child care. It started individually, through charity and philanthropy, and today it has expanded, operating in a network, coordinated by Primary Care. The term childcare is rescued as child care and inserted in the network through public policies. Care should be offered from the perspective of comprehensive health care, wherever the child is, meeting their needs, including those of children with permanent disabilities. These debates need to be included in the training of pediatricians and can contribute to coping with the fragmentation of care.
KEYWORDS
Child care; Public policy; Comprehensive health care; Unified Health System