A dosimetric survey in paediatric radiology is currently being carried out at the paediatric units of two large hospitals in Rio de Janeiro city: IPPMG (Instituto de Pediatria e Puericultura Martagão Gesteira, University Hospital of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and IFF (Instituto Fernandes Figueira, FIOCRUZ). Chest X-ray examination doses for AP, PA and LAT projections of paediatric patients have been obtained with thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) and with use of a software package DoseCal. In IPPMG and IFF 100 patients have been evaluated with the use of the TLDs and another group of 100 patients with the DoseCal software. The aim of this work was to estimate the entrance skin dose (ESD) for frontal, back and lateral chest X-rays exposure of paediatric patients. For ESD evaluation, three different TL dosimeters have been used, namely LIF:Mg, Ti (TLD100), CaSO4:Dy and LiF:Mg, Cu, P (TLD100H). The age intervals considered were 0–1, 1–5, 5–10 and 10–15 years. The results obtained with all dosimeters are similar, and it is in good agreement with the DoseCal software, especially for AP and PA projections. However, some larger discrepancies are presented for the LAT projection.