Abstract: Objective　To explore the clinical characteristics of Hashimoto encephalopathy (HE) in children. Methods　The clinical data of 4 children with HE were analyzed retrospectively. Results　All the 4 cases were school-age children and 3 of them were girls. They were physically healthy before onset. The main clinical manifestations were epileptic seizures in 3 cases, mental symptoms in 2 cases, disturbance of consciousness in 2 cases, stroke like symptoms in 1 case, decreased memory and decreased sleep in 1 case. Electroencephalogram showed that the background activity was decreased in 4 cases, and MRI showed abnormal in 3 cases. Serum thyroid antibodies were significantly increased in 4 cases, and were returned to normal in 2 cases when clinical symptoms disappeared, while they were significantly reduced, but not completely back to normal in another 2 cases. Only one out of 4 cases had abnormal thyroid function. All the 4 cases responded well to corticosteroid therapy. One of them relapsed after discontinuation of the therapy, but it was still effective when the therapy was reassumed. Conclusions　HE is rare in children. When there are manifestations of unknown cause, such as epileptic seizures, mental disorders, cognitive impairment, movement disorders and disturbance of consciousness, HE should be considered. In addition, the increase of serum thyroid antibody should be considered as a necessary condition for diagnosis.