?Did you notice his extra finger"?
The off-hand comment by my midwife as I snuggled and cooed over my minutes-old baby proved I was apparently not a ?count all ten fingers and toes? kind of parent. I peeled back my son?s hospital blanket and pulled out his wrinkly left hand to reveal a tiny malformed digit, complete with minuscule finger nail, dangling from his pinky.
?Oh yeah, my sister and nephew both had extra fingers,? my husband chimed in casually, a fact that appeared to have slipped his mind until then.
My midwife was unfazed. She?d seen it before, she?d see it again. She assured us it was no big deal, and we went back to basking in the new baby glow.
As it turns out, polydactyly (?pol-ee-DAK-tuh-lee?) is actually pretty common. How common is polydactyly"
 ?It is one of the most common congenital limb malformations, and is seen in approximately one in every 1,000 live births,? explains Anthony Kouri, an orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio.
Polydactyly has a variety of presentations and severities
 Kouri explains that polydactyly may present as a small lump of soft tissue, a partially formed digit with some underlying bone, or as a fully formed and functional extra finger or toe?and sometimes there?s one on both hands or both feet.
?The most common type of polydactyly in the hands is duplication of the small fingers,? says Kristen Davidge, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) i...