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Diarrhea causes 16% of all child deaths in Pakistan. We assessed patterns of healthcare use among caretakers of a randomly selected sample of 959 children ages 0–59 months in low-income periurban settlements of Karachi through a cross-sectional survey. A diarrheal episode was reported to have occurred in the previous 2 weeks among 298 (31.1%) children. Overall, 280 (80.3%) children sought care. Oral rehydration solution and zinc were used by 40.8% and 2%, respectively; 11% were admitted or received intravenous rehydration, and 29% sought care at health centers identified as sentinel centers for recruiting cases of diarrhea for a planned multicenter diarrheal etiology case-control study. Odds ratios for independent predictors of care-seeking behavior were lethargy, 4.14 (95% confidence interval= 1.45–11.77); fever, 2.67 (1.27–5.59); and stool frequency more than six per day, 2.29 (1.03–5.09 …