Objective To analyze the pathogen spectrum characteristics of infectious diarrhea in children under 5 years old in Zhongshan City from 2023 to 2024, and evaluate the application value of multiple detection technique in monitoring diarrhea syndrome. Methods Diarrhea specimens from hospitalized children under 5 years old in 4 sentinel hospitals in Zhongshan City from 2023 to 2024 were collected, Luminex ^® multi-pathogen detection kit (GPP) was used for screening 16 types of pathogens, and fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was simultaneously used to verify the consistency of detection results of 5 diarrhea virus. Results A total of 578 dia-rrhea specimens were collected, and the positive detection rate of pathogens was 67.13% (n=388). The positive detection rate of viral pathogens was 38.24%, mainly norovirus (21.63%), rotavirus A (10.90%), and sapovirus (4.67%). The positive detection rate of bacterial pathogens was 41.00%, mainly Salmonella spp. (19.55%), Clostridioides difficile toxin A/B (14.71%), and Campylobacter spp. (8.82%). Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba histolytica, and Giardia were not detected. The consistency between GPP and qPCR in detecting viral pathogens reached 95.16%, with a Kappa value of 0.897 (χ²=465.36, P < 0.001). Conclusion The main pathogens causing diarrhea in children in Zhongshan City are norovirus, Salmonella, and Clostridioides toxin A/B. GPP technique can efficiently construct a multi-pathogen spectrum, and provide reliable technical support for optimizing the monitoring system of diarrhea syndrome.