The study data are provided on the volume of curative and preventive care for 1740 infants at the outpatient department and at home, an analysis is made of the working time spent by a district pediatrician in two polyclinics of Nizhniy Novgorod. It has been shown that most of his time is devoted to sick children. Practically no time is spent on follow-up group of children pertaining to the populations "at risk". To improve preventive work among children of the first three years of life it is proposed to establish departments for young children in the territorial children's polyclinics. The organization of these departments makes it possible to improve the main qualitative indicators of child health.