Diarrhea contributes to about 17.5% of under-five children's death in the world and about 15.2% in developing countries. These figures were much lower compared to previous years, which show a reduction in death due to diarrhea among under-five children since 1990. In Indonesia, child deaths due to diarrhea among under-five childrendecreased from 15.3% in 1995 to 13.2% in 2001.Up to 70% of diarrhea in childhood was due to pathogen transmitted through food. Although this route of transmission already well recognized, the role of food hygiene in the development of diarrhea, especially in under-five children who live in urban poor areas, is sometimes overlooked.This study is aimed to assess the contribution of nutritional status and food hygiene practice to the occurrence of diarrhea among children aged 12 - 59 months who live in selected urban poor area in Jatinegara sub district, East Jakarta. A cross sectional study was conducted in 274 randomly selected children aged 12-59 months using interview on food hygiene practices and observation on housing and environmentalcondition in one day of the period of recording the child?s stool. Seven days record on frequency and consistency of the child?s stool was done to obtain the stool of diarrhea children. Diarrhea prevalence was calculated based on percentage of children who diagnosed as diarrhea during the seven days record. At the end of recording period allthe children were measured their weight and height to obtain their nutritional status data.All collected feces were analyzed using serology test for the presence of EPFC and ELISA for Rotavims. None ofthe feces showed the presence of EPEC and Rotavirus. There was a significant association between poor food hygiene, wasting and diarrhea among children aged 12 - 59 months, particularly in age 12 - 24 months (p-value < 0.05,X2 test).Diarrhea prevalence was higher in wasted children who had poor food hygiene practices (29.4%) compare to those with good food hygiene practices (7.7%). After stratification for age, wasted children aged 12 - 24 months with poor food hygiene practices had higher diarrhea prevalence (55.6%) compare to those who aged more than24 months with the same food hygiene practices.