Objective  To explore changes in focuses on child health development in the the National Program of Action for Child Development in China (NPA) and the Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People′s Republic of China (Five-Year Plan) over the years and to provide ideas for developing child health policies in the future.

  Methods  Through searching government websites, 11 documents of NPA and Five-Year Plan published by the State Council of the People′s Republic of China from 1991 through 2010 were collected. Content-based word frequency analysis on NPA was performed with NVivo software and coding analysis was conducted for Five-Year Plan documents. The key points relevant to child health development policy in the NPA and the Five-Year Plan were compared and illustrated with an evolution chart.

  Results  In the NPA, the value concept of attaching importance to children′s comprehensive development has shifted from focusing on children′s survival of to the development of children, and increasingly attentions have been paid to the construction of laws and regulations and service system. In the Five-Year Plan, the value concept of children′s health has been expanded from focusing on children′s physical health to on children′s psychological health and social adaptation, with more considerations to healthy development of migrant children and other children with special needs; the number and category of child health development indicators gradually increased but a few of regulations and service system construction plans were indicated.

  Conclusion  The value concept of child health development is relatively mature but related laws and regulations establishment need to be promoted in both the NPA and the Five-Year Plan. The construction of service system special for child health development also needs to be considered when making related national plans.