[Well-child care: two distinct views].

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.