Objective: to verify the quality of child health care in the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in a state capital of Northeastern Brazil. Methods: a descriptive study using a quantitative approach was carried out in 2010 with 66 primary care (PC) teams represented by their doctors and nurses. The survey used part of the Evaluation for Quality Improvement of the Family Health Strategy² (AMQ), a self-rating instrument of the Brazilian Ministry of Health which evaluates the FHS actions and services and classifies them by the following quality-based standards of care: Elementary, undergoing development, Consolidated, Good or Advanced. Results: 84.1% of the FHS-teams rated themselves as providing "Elementary" actions and services, and 47.7% of them considered that they provided "Advanced" ones. The health teams with less than four years of implementation rated themselves better. Conclusion: these findings suggest that most of the FHC-teams are providing care with an elementary standard of quality, and indicate that better quality child care is apparently delivered with by teams with less time of implementation. Key words: health care quality. access. evaluation of health systems. family health. child health. (public health).