In Egypt, the determinants and rationale for drug use among infants have not been previously studied. We give an overview of the use of prescribed and non-prescribed medication over a 1-month period in infants in Alexandria, Egypt. In 89.6% of cases mothers stated that their infants had suffered some ailments which necessitated intervention; 27.5% used traditional therapies or non-prescribed medication and 72.5% sought medical advice. The non-prescribed medicines used were mainly antispasmodics and antipyretics. This study provides the first overview of the frequency of use of non-prescribed medication in infants and detected some indicators of irrational drug prescribing by physicians.