<p><strong>Background</strong>: A large percent of the population in developing countries is comprised of children. Drug utilization patterns in children is of great concern universally and has gained a lot of attention.</p><p><strong>Objectives</strong>: The aim of this study was to test the Pakistani parents' knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) towards self-medicating their children.</p><p><strong>Methods</strong>: A cross-sectional study was designed and the data collection was carried

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... t in several government and private hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan. Non probability convenient random sampling method was employed to select the participants.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: In our study, 45 (44.55%) parents were university graduates. The most frequent medicines used were Panadol (paracetamol) 84 (83%). The most common self-treated symptom was cough &amp; cold 73 (72.27%). In case of self-treatment failure most of the parents in the present study tend to consult general practitioners in private clinics 62 (61%), while 31 (31%) of them seek advice from child specialists in hospitals. Doctors were the first favourite source for 92 (91.0%) of parents. The most common reasons were the expensive consultation fees and long waiting time in the clinics. A large portion of parents disagreed that health care workers' attitudes were bad, or that information relayed to them was insufficient. Another important finding was 52 (51.4%) of parents were convinced that they can diagnose their child's illnesses by the symptoms.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: The study uncovered that parents' knowledge was lacking, and their parental self-medication practice demonstrated to be unseemly. Based on the results of our study, we conclude that there is a critical need of appropriate interventions to tackle this issue.</p><p id="tinymce" class="mceContentBody " dir="ltr">Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.15(1) 2016 p.33-38</p>