I picked up the next multivitamin prescription in the pile and went to fill it as I had filled at least 30 other such prescriptions that day. It called for drops, not tablets, so I knew that the patient was very young. When I looked for the age on the form, I found a question mark. I then looked at the space for the name, which also had a question mark. "That's odd," I thought. "How could someone not name their child or know how old it was?" To solve the mystery, I went down the hallway, crowded with patients, to the table where the pediatrician was seeing children, but I was completely unprepared for what I would find.

"This sheet doesn't have a name or age," I said. "Do you know how old the child is?"

"This is the prescription for the baby that was found ten days ago," she replied. "The baby is probably about two weeks old." I was shocked.