Abstract       Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are among the most common causes of physician consultation in the pediatric age group 4. The underlying etiology is typically viral, however, at the outpatient level; antibiotics are often used for the treatment of many ARI episodes even where therapeutic benefit may be unlikely. The present study was undertaken to analyze the current prescribing trends of antimicrobial use in acute respiratory tract infection in children in a tertiary care hospital. A total of 200 OPD cases which included both URTI and LRTI patients were analysed out of the 2587 cases of ARI screened for the study. Penicillins were the most commonly prescribed class of drugs and we noted a favorable trend towards monotherapy. All drugs in our study were prescribed by generic name.