There are several causes that lead to the institutional care of children and adolescents, alcoholism being one of them. This study is a part of the research project entitled: "Children and adolescents in institutional care in the Federal District: a study of the family, institutional and social conditions" and is based on the qualitative methodology of case studies. Its general objective was to understand the institutional trajectory and the family history of families whose children and adolescents were institutionally sheltered due to the use of alcohol by their parents, through the documental analysis of the files in the sheltering institutions and in the CREAS.