Necessidades essenciais das crianças acompanhadas em um programa de visita domiciliar na primeira infância

Identify the essential needs of children followed up in a home visiting program to promote child development. This is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach in which the visitation records of 18 families were analyzed through home visits in a program to promote child development. The notes of the visiting nurses of 846 home visits were analyzed from the child’s pregnancy to two years of age. The topics mostly addressed in the visits (nutrition, physical health, adequate and safe housing, positive parenting, child development) are in line with the essential needs of children in the Brazelton and Greespan framework. There was a good relationship between the contents covered in the nurses’ home visits with the theoretical framework adopted. Sustaining relationships, physical protection and security, experiences suitable for development and stable and supportive communities were topics that were widely discussed. Experiences that respect individual limits and the establishment of limits, organization and expectations could have been better addressed for the caregiver to reflect on the development of the child’s autonomy and understanding.