Due to the difficulties of its implementation, as well as social implications and theoretical ones about babies' development in a situation of institutional care, it was carried on a systematic literature review on this issue. The review was conducted in two databases, national (BVS-Psi) and international (PsicInfo), with the intersection of the keywords infants and foster home. Results revealed that the academic production of researches concerning foster care for infants is not extensive; neither the babies' experience in the context of foster home care nor their developmental aspects are specially highlighted in the studies ; the thematic axis regarding the construction of bonds is highlighted, focusing especially in terms of the breaking up of infant's relationship with the mother, and less concerning the babies' relationship construction with the caregivers and it was observed that during the last three decades, international researches presented a higher diversity of protection services and greater variability of issues under discussion. Among the findings, we highlight the need to expand studies on babies' institutional care.
Infants; shelters; review