My son was born with the second and third toe webbed and I am not sure what to do. I would like to have them separated but don't know anything about the surgery and recovery. It isn't the worst problem but would love to have it dealt with. If you hear of anything please let me know.

Thanks

trena

My second and third toes were webbed up to the second knuckle and I had them split about a year ago. I would not reccomend splitting them if it is for looks. My toes are still sore sometimes. The surgery is very complicated and I was on the couch for almost a month. I limped for a long time and it has finally healed all the way. If you can help it, don't do the surgery.

My grandmother had 2nd and third toes, as did my mother and i had had 2nd and third on the right side and 2nd, third and 4th on the left. My grand son has the 2nd and 3rd. I had my 2nd and 3rd split on both feet. It bothered me alot as a child and i was 19 when i had it done. I hated them, and was teased. But now at 58 i sure wished i had them, so my grandson would feel better

i cant help you but im going to copy this to the foot forum and hopefully you will get more help there

It's funny...I've struggled with Body Dysmorphis Disorder (BDD) for many years, though the fused 2nd and 3rd toes of my left foot have never really been an issue for me. However, I can completely understand others' feelings of repugnance or shame regarding their syndactyly. As I mentioned, I have had a long, painful history of trying to reshape a body which, for years, I percieved to be abnormal.

The question is...will plastic surgery to correct the fusion truly increase your son's happiness/life success? Will it increase his self-esteem, or raise his market value as a human being? Maybe. I'm not going to tell you categorically that it won't. But I do know two things for sure.

The first is that recovery from cosmetic surgery is pure and utter HELL. In my own experience, the ensuing pain, nausea, and disturbing numbness (due to nerve damage) far outweighed the potential benefits of looking more attractive. I can't even imagine how painful or debilitating it must be
to experience such discomfort on the body part I use most every day.

Secondly, in terms of social success, self-esteem, and ultimate happiness, your son will benefit much more from you modeling confident behavior that teaches him self-determination, rather than externally-focused behavior that teaches him to be insecure and anxious. I'm not saying your concerns are totally without merit. The fact is, your son probably will be teased as he grows up. If not for fused toes, then for scars where a fusion used to be. Or acne. Or being too tall. Or too bookish. Or too whatever. Take a step back from your situation, and you will see that this really has nothing to do with toes. It has to do with fear, and wanting to protect our children from being hurt by others as we ourselves have been hurt.

It's almost unbearable to think about, but the truth is that at some point, your son will likely experience tremendous emotional pain - as do we all. My prediction is thay the deciding factors in his ability to survive that pain will have nothing to do with his toes, fingers, or any other body part.

P.S. Syndactyly skipped a generation in my family. My beautiful paternal grandmother had it as well. Before I knew anything about inheritence, it was physical evidence that she and I were linked - proof positive that I was carrying on her genes.

Best of luck in your decision!

My 2nd and 3rd toes are also stuck together and so are my bfs. We have no problems with it in fact we love it. it make us different and no one can ever tell unless you point it out. His are connected up to below the nail and he has large feet. My feet are a size 6 so my toes are very small so you can not tell at all but still. Even as a child when i showed people no one made fun of it. 1 in 200 people have it so its not that strange. If you have it on your feet you can not pass it to your childs hads only there feet so i think thats good. I have met atleat 15 people in real life that have it. I never thought it was ugly or strange. i thought it was different but its realy not. When i 1st met my bf i showed him my toes and he said "mine look like that" My bf and i hope our kids have the twin toes we think its cool and the kids im sure will if we both have it..... GL and so get them seperated it is not worth it from what i hear.

Hi Chardeeus. Did you reach a decision? I also have webbed toes on my right foot (2nd and 3rd again), and i know that my cousin and uncle have the same. There could be others in my family too but i've never checked! They don't bother me, but my cousin did ask her doctor about getting them surgically separated and he advised against it as it is a complicated and fairly painful process.

Hey Im from Ohio and just read over your message, my son was also born with all his toes webbed in pairs of two , and missing his big toe on his right foot, i was just curious if your son ever ended up having the surgery, im so undecided and just want what best for him.

like you are facing some difficult decisions on the webbed toes issue.

Hope it works out for you.

I had surgery on my right foot for my twin toes and there it left a scare, but they were unable to perform surgery on my left foot because the nerves are joined together therefore splitting them could do some major damage, so now I have one foot with twin toes and the other split. Honestly I would rather have both feet with the scar. I have one child who does not have twin toes, but now im pregnant again and if this child has twin toes, I will definatley choose to have the surgery for her. I grew up with being ashamed of them even though I knew deep down that it wasnt that big of a deal and I should be thankful that was all what was wrong with me, but my feet have always bothered me so I would suggest getting them fixed. My doctor said the best time to get them fixed is when your a baby, because then you might not get scars and your feet are still growing and will not cause much grief.

Im 15, my 2nd and 3rd toes on both feet are fused together and its nice knowing im not alone (: i used to get bullied at primary school about my feet and most people know in my village and i am scared of going out and seeing the ones who bully me about it but im lucky that m secondry school is in a town 16 miles away and the people there have no idea, i have a boyfriend off a year and 4 months and i still havent told him. im too ashamed. i have been to the doctors about having them seperated and i have been reffered to a specialist. i really hope the surgery will make me more confident and not leave much scaring. but loads of people have scars, and i guess its not as unusual. im quite popular and im not ugly but im definatly not someone who is health forum about it. its harder having so many friends and an amazing boyfriend and then to remember your abnormal. it feels like i am a split person. and i really hope this is all works out great for me and ends the torment im feeling xx

my baby boy was born with webbed toes some joint to the nuckel and some completely the way.ive heard pf webbed feet but my son was also got a missing toe we thought until they x rayed his foot and found the toe inside his foot side ways in between the other toes he also has problems with his size hes 1 next month but is the size of a 5 month old and not putting weight on he doesnt roll over or crawl or speak but his mind is like a normal 1 year old doctors are testing for everything but still dont know whats wrong.i want to know if theres any parent in the same position as me and has the same symptoms or simalar with here child as my head is all over the place not knowing whats wrong with my baby.x

Hay, had it done many years ago. By a surgeon who had never done it before. He was very proud of himself and had it published in a medical journal. He felt quite brilliant. He used pig skin for grafting and guess what, It grew right back together and he refused to admit it was a failure. Such arrogance! In spite of that I would definitely have it done again if anyone out there knew how to do it right. They can send men to the moon and perform all kinds of medical miracles, but because so many of us hide, no doctor sees the potential for specializing in this proceedure. As soon as a child realizes he/she is different, they will become selfconscience. My feet were never talked about growing up with the exception of 2 times. Both by my er...mother. I felt ridiculed by her. And she had no idea how it affected me. And also by my brother who had the same feet. He is the only one who teased me mercilessly. He did it once but it scarred me for life. He was such a knucklehead that I hated having this in common with him. I also had a best friend who laughed. That hurt me a lot. A neighbor little girl had it and when I was thrilled to see someone else had this, her brother quickly let me know she was going to have them fixed when she got older. So anyone who says it doesn't bother them should consider themselves very blessed. Because it sets you apart from others and if you don't hide it you will spend far too much time discussing it when you would rather not. It wasnt so bad until flip flops and sandals are now worn by everyone. Even people with really ugly feet wear them. So ugly you can look at them and utter...ugh! but that is it. I manage to find sandals that sort of hide this, but they are usually not what I prefer to wear. I always wear socks and there are people in my family who don't even know. And to top it off, so many people seem to love their feet and show them off. The one great thing I have to add is that no one else in my family so far since myself have been born with these dogs. Not my 2 kids and not my 2 grand kiddies. I hate feet and could care less about them. I don't want to hear about or see their pedicures. Maybe some day I will say screw it and make everyone look at my feet and talk about them all the time until they get as sick about it as I am of them. I guess I turned this into a bit of a vent, but I guess I just need to. If anyone wants to have the proceedure done for correction, please make sure the doc has done it before and ask to see healed pics of the patients. Not just post surgery pics. That is the best advice I can give. By the way, they are NOT webbed. They are conjoined. Some knucklehead called them webbed and no one straightened them out on that. They are conjoined. Nothing like ducks feet. And I feel insulted to be compared as such. Ask your kids how they feel about their feet and let them know they don't have to keep them if they don't want to. It could mean the world to them. But ask more than once. Keep it between just the two of you. They could be too embarrassed to admit they are embarrassed or they could change their minds in the future.

I am 15, and my 2nd and 3rd toes are together on my right foot. my 2nd toe is longer than my big toe, and it kinda squishes up a bit. anyways, my parents thought about having the surgery when I was a baby, but the doctors always said it wouldn't be a problem when I got older...well, it does bug me when I walk and dance, so I am having the surgery in, about a month. My parents said I could decide if I wanted it done or not, and I think that is what you should do - wait until your child is old enough to decide what he/she wants to do. How do you know if in 10-15 years that they want to be different or not. Or if the surgery will benefit them or not? you won't know, so might as well let them decide.
So...about the surgery:
I will go in for a day surgery, possibly stay overnight. I need a skin graph from my groin...and they will cut a 'Z' or zig-zag between the two toes. After surgery, there are many ways to prevent scarring. I will be on crutches for about 2 weeks, and no physical activity for 4-6 weeks.
Many doctors will not do the surgery for cosmetic reasons, because it is a pretty big surgery.
Hope this helps!
P.S. I am in Canada, so the surgery is free until I am 18...that is one of the reasons why I am getting it done now and not in 10 years

My sister had hers seperated in the 70's. She regrets it now because she says they are ugly and scarred. So unless you find a doctor who has done it many times with pictures to prove it, I'd say beware.

I'm a 54 year old woman who has spent my life thinking that this problem was unique to me. Just by chance I googled this last night and discovered there is a medical term (Syndactyly)for my webbed toes, and I'm not that unique. My left second and third toe are webbed to my nail bed.The only time it's a concern for me, is when I have a new person doing my pedicures. After the shock registers on their face, they adjust. I wear sandals and no one really notices.
Church Lady

I'm 31 and have second to third toe syndactyly on both feet -- to the nail bed. When I was born, the doctors joked that I'd be able to swim faster. I've had very few negative experiences in my life due to this condition.

I once broke my second two on my left foot (when I was eleven). Typically, they tape you second toe to your big toe to address a toe fracture like that -- clearly that wasn't an option for me. Now on the rare occasion, it aches. As I understand it, this rare aching is likely due to the injury and not the inability to treat it using the standard approach.

My toes are nice and "the webs" don't detract from that in any way. Some people are surprised and interested. But I find people are allowed to be exactly as disgusted and concerned as I am -- which is to say not at all.

I am very happy with my syndactyly. It's unique and has had no significant negative impact on my life of the last 30 years and I sincerely doubt I'll have issues going forward.

I'm sixteen years old and I have my second and third toes webbed all the way to the top on both of my feet. My mother didn't want to get them separeted at birth because she wanted to leave the decision up to me. And I'm glad she did, I wouldn't want it any other way. It's a part of who I am, and it's never going to change.

People should appriciate their differences and let their bodies be. Don't change it.

I was born with and extra big toe on each foot and the 2nd and 3rd toes on each are webbed to the nail bed. My parents had surgery done when I was 6 mos. old to correct the big toes and the webbing was left. My surgery was done by a well known surgeon at Duke University. I think if he thought that splitting the toes was a good idea, he would have done so. They were left and I have had no problems and now I am 31. Yes there are the occasional stares and I was teased a little as a kid, but all kids are teased about something. If you raise your kids as though this isn't a big deal, then it won't be. We didn't have conversations about "it's okay to be different", I was treated as though there wasn't anything different, so I don't have a complex about my feet now. The only nuisance I run into is that I have feet that are a little wider and I can't wear some types of shoes, other than that, I'm just like the rest of them.