This thesis aims at investigating how infancy and Early Childhood Education fit in Education and Health Policymaking in Brazil, from 1950 to 1960, the so-called period of desenvolvimentismo This historical research explores theoretical and methodological contributions, mainly from cultural history. Based on the examination of records and files of that period of time, some issues are going to be dealt with, such as: the preschool as a necessary evil; public and private initiatives that gave origin to educational policies for small children; Early Childhood Education as working women´s children right, women´s right to education; the role of the State in educational initiatives (campaigns, programs and projects); and the creation of public organs and proposals destined to children´s education in Brazil. This research highlights the existing tensions in the years 1950/1960, as far as children and their education outside home and family are concerned, which are: mother´s access to work versus child´s development; preschool education conceived as a preparatory stage for primary school versus an educational stage with an end in itself; children`s education as a duty of the State versus a duty owed to the family and society; volunteering (benevolent interest) needed in early childhood care and protection programs versus professionalism (educators` formation); the motherly educator versus the professional educator; the preschool institution seen as a substitute for home care versus the space for children´s development; child-centered educational process in preschools and kindergarten versus the idea that the teacher or educator is at the center of this process.