A San Francisco couple is beaming after becoming the proud parents of a healthy but incredibly rare baby boy this month.
Baby Kamani Hubbard has six-fully formed and functional fingers and toes on his hands and feet. The condition, called “polydactyly”, is not an uncommon genetic trait, but doctors say they’ve never seen a case so remarkable.
When the baby arrived three weeks ago, he seemed so perfect at birth no one noticed.
Because he looked so normal, hospital staff only told Miryoki Gross, Kamani’s mom that the he was six pounds in good health.
It wasn’t until his dad Kris Hubbard noticed this spectacularly rare case of polydactyly: 6-perfect fingers on each hand and 6-perfect toes on each foot.
Some family members of his family have had six fingers, not completely developed.
In fact Kris Hubbard himself had nubs of sixth fingers removed as a child as these non-functional digits routinely are.
The unusual part about this case is that the new baby’s extra digits are functional.
“It’s merely an interesting and beautiful variation rather than a worrisome thing,” said Dr. Michael Treece and St. Luke’s Hospital Pediatrician. “I would be tempted to leave those fingers in place. I realize children would tease each other over the slightest things, and having extra digits on each hand is more than slight. But imagine what sort of a pianist a 12-fingered person would be imagine what sort of a flamenco guitarist, if nothing else think of their typing skills.”
This little guy is so cute, I bet no one would even notice unless someone showed them…
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I was told by my dear friend that having 12 toes is actually pretty common in the USA. In fact her son who will be 7 next month has 12 toes. He has the perfect feet too, just has 6 toes on each foot!