As this Special Issue in Child Health Care grew and developed, we envisioned three main goals. First, to showcase some of the excellent research being conducted by nurses and others to provide better evidence for preventative and restorative nursing care of children and families. Second, to highlight the breadth of child and family health issues and methods of enquiry that are being explored by nurses and which contribute to greater understanding of children's health care needs. Third, to focus attention on some of the many significant gaps in our research knowledge base which need to be addressed if we are to achieve improvement in children's health outcomes.