A 1-year prospective study was carried out in two large urban centers of São Paulo State, Brazil, to determine the prevalences and roles of the different Escherichia coli pathotypes in children less than 5 years of age with diarrhea presenting to the emergency rooms of public hospitals or visiting private pediatricians' offices. Of the pathotypes sought, typical enteroaggregative and atypical enteropathogenic types of E. coli were isolated for 8.9% and 5.4% of 774 diarrhea cases, respectively, and were found to be dominant and significantly associated with diarrhea.