Background: Mortality of diarrhea have decreased significantly starting in 2000, from about 1.2 million deaths among children under 5 years old to 526,000 in 2015 - a 57% reduction. Despite this, diarrhea remains the second most common cause of death among children under 5, closely following pneumonia. Objectives: To describe clinical and subclinical characteristics of acute diarrhea in children from 2 months to 5 years of age. Subjects and methods: 148 patients from 2 months to 5 years of age who were diagnosed with acute diarrhea for treatment in General Pediatrics Department 1 - Pediatric Center - Hue Central Hospital from April 2018 to April 2019. Set up a cross-sectional study. Results: The group of 2 - 24 months of age accounted for the highest proportion (83.1%), no dehydration (84.5%), dehydration (15.5%), no severe dehydration. The common electrolyte disturbance is hyponatremia (15.5%) and hypokalemia (32.4%). Conclusion: Acute diarrhea in children usually lasts less than 7 days; The common symptoms are vomiting, fever, inflammation of the upper respiratory tract; Laboratory tests showed that peripheral leukocytes were usually not increased and most of them were caused by Rotavirus. Key words: clinical, subclinical, acute diarrhea