Objective: To present our experience of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients in terms of clinical presentation and to observe if there is any difference in clinical presentation of our children from that in the Western world. Methodology: A cross‐sectional observational study was carried out in the paediatric rheumatology follow‐up clinic run by the Department of Child Health, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh, during the study period of January 2004 to April 2007. A total of 132 patients fulfilling International League against Rheumatism classification criteria were enrolled in the study. Data were collected in a questionnaire containing clinical history, physical findings, relevant investigations and ophthalmologic findings. Results: Among the 132 cases 89 were male and 43 were female, M:F ratio being approximately 2:1. Age range of the patients was 1.5 years to 15 years. Maximum number of patients presented in the age group from 7–8 years (12.10%) followed by 10–11 years (11.36%). Duration of illness was more than 12 months in the majority. Polyarticular rheumatoid factor‐negative patients were most frequent (41.70%), followed by persistent oligoarthritis (23.50%). The majority of the patients (51.52%) were diagnosed with rheumatic fever before they reported to us. Conclusion: Late diagnosis with long duration of disease and deformities were common. Wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment was also very common. Clinical presentation of our cases differed from Western JIA cases mainly is terms of sex distribution, subtypes and late presentation.