It happens that children are born with extra fingers or toes, although it is very unusual. Most often it is due to heredity, but sometimes no underlying cause can be found.
Too many fingers
Extra fingers are due to the fact that a finger plant has been doubled. It can look many different ways. It can be anything from a little extra skin and soft finger to an extra finger with skeletal content. It can also be a coalescence between the skeletal structures so that the current finger looks much wider than normal. This usually applies to the thumb.
An X-ray examination is done to find out what the skeleton looks like. Thereafter, the doctor, in consultation with the parents, takes a position on whether and, if so, what interventions should be made to ensure that the hand’s function, in the long run, is as good as possible. Sometimes the child needs to be assessed by a specialist in hand surgery.
An extra little finger often appears as a small skin flap and can be easily removed. The child should then be about six months old because of the risks of anesthesia, even if they are small, decrease with the child’s age.
Too many tears
It happens that children are born with more than ten toes. The most common thing is that the child has an extra small toe or big toe. Sometimes the extra toe just hangs with a thin fabric and skin bridge. If the connection is wider, the foot needs an x-ray to allow the doctor to see which toe to remove. It is most common for the outer toe to be removed.
The result after an operation becomes better the older the child is and is not done when the child is newborn. The most appropriate time is at the age of one year or just before the child starts to stand and walk. If there is a skeletal connection to the extra toe, there is a risk that the bone will eventually grow out a little and the child may need to be operated on again during adulthood.