Objective To analyze the epidemiological feature of foodborne acute diarrhea among children in Qinghai, and to provide references for foodborne acute diarrhea control and prevention. Methods Suspected foodborne acute diarrhea cases during 2013-2016 were collected from 13 sentinel hospitals of Qinghai among children aged less than 4 years and feces or swab samples were collected for pathogenic analysis. Four kinds of bacteria (Shigella spp., Salmonella spp., diarrheagenic E.coli and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) and one kind of viruses (Norovirus) were detected. Results A total of 3 068 foodborne acute diarrhea among children aged less than 4 years were enrolled. The main character of feces was watery stool, and 54.66% (1 677/3 068) had fever. There were 150 positive cases, and the total positive rate was 4.89% (150/3 068). The highest positive rate was Shigella spp., which was 2.36% (72/3 049), followed by Salmonella spp. of 2.11% (64/3 035), and the positive rate of Norovirus was 1.02% (10/983). The foodborne acute diarrhea among children was mainly occurred during the summer and autumn. The positive rate of infants (<1) was higher than that of infants (1-3). Milk products were the main suspected food. Conclusion The main pathogen was Shigella spp. and Salmonella spp. among children of in Qinghai Province, and Norovirus was also detected. It was necessary to strengthen the surveillance capacity and the publicity of foodborne acute diarrhea knowledge among children,also to carry out more effective preventive and control measures.