Webbed Toes

Why do my Webbed Toes Itch so bad?
I don’t think that it is Athletes foot but at this
point in my old age and suffering i’m not sure what it is.

i also have my 2&3 toe 0n both feet web about 3\4 away

oops! I meant 74 years later.

I went searching for more info on webbed toes after I just had my 2nd child to be born with webbed toes. My 2nd & 3rd kids have the 2nd & 3rd toes on both feet, webbed right up to the nail. My oldest child does not have webbed toes. My toes are not webbed but my husband are, but not nearly as severe. Also, both of the grandma’s have webbed toes. At first I thought I wanted to have them seperated, I would hate to have the kids teased for them while growing up. However, now we all call them “special toes” and will leave the decision to seperate them up to our kids when they get older. My husband thinks they are cool. When our last baby was born on 9/20/03, it was the first thing that my husband and mom looked for when the baby came out of me….no one cared about the gender, they just wanted to see if it had webbed toes! LOL!

I still don’t understand why somebody would be concered with separating the toes. It’s an extremely minor cosmetic difference from “the norm”.

But if it bothers you, ask your doctor about it. Most likely he/she will tell you that they *can* separate them, but that there is no real reason to do so. So you would probably just be subjecting your baby to
unnecessary discomfort.

I am yet another born with my 2nd and 3rd toes joined. Mine only go half way up so it looks like I have really short toes there. I say “so what, they get me where I’m going.”

I got my 2nd and 3rd toes fully webbed and all my others partially. It runs in my family(obviously) from my Dad’s side. My aunt has it too, but her fingers are partially webbed and her rings cant go on all the way. I think it is cool and I know some other people with the same trait. There is no reason to get them seperated, the way I see it is they are meant to be like that. Ive read some stories and such about Plato’s Atlantis and the people there had webbed digits, so maybe all of us have a bit of heritage from a “lost race” of webbed people. I know the “webbed gene” is dominate but I do not know and havent heard of any couples with the webbed gene that have made babies. My guess is their child would be more webbed than the parents. If I have a child that is webbed there is no way I would let doctors cut the webbing, I would him or her make that decision for themselves.

We are all not clones. Our uniqueness is what makes us special. Let your baby decide when it is grown what to do with its body. Use it as a learning opportunity to appreciate and value people who are different.We love people for who they are and not what they look like.

For those of you searching for more scientific information about this, try this link describing syndactyly, a joining of the fingers and/or toes.

Again, for simple joined toes like mine, I wouldn’t be concerned. It’s just a little extra skin, it’s not hurting anything, and nobody has ever noticed my toes unless I went out of the way to point them out anyhow (which I don’t mind doing, because, I think they’re interesting). But for more serious conditions such as joined fingers, you probably want to consult a physician.

I have Webbed toes and think that us few that have this trait are very special. I also think that we are messengers of GOD. I am not a very religious person. But I feel that I have been on this planet for a reason. And though everyone is different. We are different in a different way. We may not be mutants but all ANGELS.

Like many here my 2nd & 3rd toes on each foot are webbed 3/4 the way up. As far as we new I was the only person in my family history that had ever had that trait. With in a year after my birth a first cousin of mine was born that had his toes webbed the same way. Neither of us has had them seperated and doctors advised at birth that there would be more medical complications from seperating them than if they were left alone. I can’t underdstand why anyone would want them seperated, I think they look healthier than skinny boney toes. I do however get tired of being asked if I can swim fast. I tend to show off my toes to try and freak people out that have never seen toes like mine before and everyone thinks my toes are very weird and cool and I’m pround of it. I hope my kids have webbed toes.

Marcus,

I read your message and could relate to you. I have webbed 2nd &
3rd toes on both feet. My one foot is more webbed than the other. My
right foot has 2nd & 3rd toes completely connected to the tips of my
toes, with my toe nails almost touching. My left foot has the webbing
only going up to below the toe nails of my 2nd & 3rd toes. It is not as
notciable but still bothers me when people notice it. I too never wear
sandals, or worse yet flip flops. I am a proud member of the “bury our
feet in the sand” club, when i go to the beach.

I would recommend against surgery on your toes. I was told by a
doctorr I spoke with that you could have nerves or blood vessels between the
toes and that you run the riskof losing circulation or feeling in one
or both toes. If you lose circualtion, it could result in amputatio of
a toe. i think I would rather keep all ten of my toes.

Tell me more about how self-conscious you are of your toes. You
probably had similar childhood and teen year memories as me. If I had a
dollar for every person who said I must be a great swimmer, I would be a
rich!

Keep in touch,

Connie

I’m at school right now, in the library, and there’s this dude over there with 6 toes. It’s scary… I wanna go ask him if he really has 6 toes, but nah…i’d be i\embarrassed:) laterz..

Hey all! Wow this page has givin me a lot of insight on this subject. I’m 16 and I just recently had my 2nd and 3rd toes on both feet seperated about 5 days ago. I am going through the healing process and oh my gosh i’ll tell you its not easy! I wish i would have known more before i went ahead with the surgery, like about the risks and recovery process. There’s really no use complaining about it though, theres nothing i can do to turn back time and re-join them! Is there anyone who has had this surgery also that can tell me how it turned out or what the outcome was? When i saw my new toes for the first time the other day, it was a big nasty mess ( obviously because i just had surgery) but im sad and i feel like they’re never going to look normal again! I was perfectly fine before but i was really self concious about them and couldn’t wear sandals or anything because i was embarrased. I should have just excepted the way i was. Oh well…Hopefully everything will turn out okay because i have wanted this done for many years. If any one has any advice or support that would be wonderfull! Thanks alot!

Noone, I tried emailing you but your address didn’t work. Please email me, I’d like to chat with someone whose toes are webbed exactly like mine!

I’m 33 yrs old & have always wondered how many of “us” there were. Both of my feet have 2nd & 3rd toes joined all the way to the middle of the nails. When I was little – I didn’t know any better, teen – embarrassed, late teen – had a lot of fun with other people’s ignorance (can trace my heritage back to the Royal Family with these), early adult – it became a badge of honor, conversation, and (not a few times) an in with the ladies… now I don’t think about them much anymore but my wife does… she was worried that our children would have “it” also… My daughter’s are but only about 10-15% and my son’s feet look “normal”. I’m glad I never had the operation. It has made me a stronger person and also more in tune with physical differences in others. It has allowed me to see differences without offending or drawing attention to them… just seeing people for who they are inside (if I may be so blatantly P. C.)
Have any others heard of them referred to as “Indian Toes”? My family has some Native American Bloodlines and I was always under the impression that that may have been where they came from.
I also can’t swim but would be rich as well, even if it was only a penny per time. I have a very good friend that is missing most toes and some fingers from his left side – dithalidimide I think… we were friends first & then became best friends thru our “abnormal digits” Oh, BTW, he’s a good swimmer.
For those of you who may read this & are just starting to become aware / self-conscience of your toes, I won’t insult you by saying “don’t think about it” or “ignore them” but I will say this – have fun with it, if they’re so curious, let them prove your parents weren’t part of some super secret nuclear program – or you can be aloof to it all with the knowledge that normal is boring and eventually there will be rewarding moments in being different. But be warned that playing “This little piggy” with your kids may need some revision.

I have always been so embarrased by my toes. My 2nd and 3rd are also webbed. My left isn’t as bad as the right foot. I won’t wear open toed shoes out unless it’s around certain people. The only guys I’ve ever let notice are ones that I was serious with (over a year). I decided to seperate them, so I started with the right foot since it was more severe. My mom’s doctor that she works for did it, although he’d never performed the operation before. They wouldn’t heal and I had to take the bandages off to allow them to heal. I tried to put a bandage between them during the day, but it wouldn’t stay. Needless to say, it grew back up. Now I have a scar. The surgery wasn’t that bad, but trying to walk later almost killed me. All that pressure on that foot! Anyway, my sister now picks on me (hers are worse than mine) because she says the scars look like tree branches! I would still love to have the seperated (by someone who’s done it before). What kind of doctor should I look for? It’s more difficult for a female to have this problem, especiallly when guys love feet and open toed shoes are so popular now. I would do anything to feel comfortable enough to wear them all summer long. I go to great lengths to hide them at the beach etc. My sister doesn’t care as much as I do. I try to buy sandals that cover up until near the very top of my toes or about 3/4 the way up. When guys see me with those type shoes on they say, “you look like you have beautiful feet”. I think to myself,”yeah, if they weren’t webbed”! Do you think it would really freak most guys out? I even go around the house with socks or shoes on!

My 16 month old son was born with simple bilateral syndactyly of 2nd and 3rd toes on both feet. As far as we can tell there is no family history on either side. After his birth noone noticed the “condition” for the first 3 days. From the start we knew we would like to get his toes seperated to spare him the future ridicule and embarrassement that he might have encountered in school later on. The plastic surgeon we consulted informed us that we would have to wait till our son was at least a year old, at that time we scheduled the surgery time. The surgery finally took place this September. I am not very happy with the results. The toes on the left foot had grown back together half way up. The other foot looks better, however there is scarring on both feet, he has these white almost blister like scars. He did require skin grafts. The plastic surgeon keeps telling us that his toes will heal and the scarring will go away, and that the foot that has grown together will be a very simple procedure to reseperate. Does anyone out there know if his scarring is likely to go away or is the good Dr. just feeding us what we want to hear? Also, since my son doesn’t speak yet, how long do the toes hurt for after surgery and how bad is the pain?

Also Joanna to answer your other question, Im sure over time scarring will eventually go away. The more your son grows and develops, the more the scarring will blend in with the normal skin and dissapear. Overall there could be slight noticable scars but nothing to worry about! Hope this helps!

Oh, and by the way, our plastic surgeon recommended to go ahead with surgery now. He said that the second toe tends to be longer than the third and if toes are attached it can cause a bending of the second toe. I don’t know if there is any truth to that but that was one of the deciding factors to go ahead with surgery.

When I was a teen, I met another girl who had large, square scars on her thigh. I asked her about them, and she said, wearily, that she was a Siamese twin, and they were her separation scars. She was joking, of course, because she was asked about the scars all the time. It turns out that her webbed toes had been separated when she was an infant, and the skin grafts were taken from her thigh. I showed her my webbed toes. I have to think that webbed toes are much less disfiguring than skin graft scars. I’m glad my parents chose to leave well enough alone.

In any event, good luck to the young woman and infant who are healing. I’ll be interested to find out what the results are in the long run.

Its amazing after reading all these posts how many of us are out there!! I have never seenanyone with a toes like mine… only my left foot is webbed on the second and third toes….but mine is webbed all the way to the top and and the bones of each toe, I was told when I was a kid is fused at the top, with one nail covering both toenail area….not that many of us are webbed to the top including the nail…I too spent my childhood hiding my foot and dreaded if anyone would find out….at the beach, I always buried my foot in the sand….never wore open toe shoes….well, I turn 40 this year and for the first time, I could care less what people think about it!! It is what it is!!

i am a teenager and i have wanted to get my webbed toes (they are 2/3 of the way up on both feet) separated. I have looked at some things on the internet about webbed toes and surgery to fix it, its really embarassing to me and i want to be able to wear flip flops and open toed shoes again without worrying if anyone is looking at my feet, but the only complications i heard about were nerve damage and me not being able to feel my two toes anymore. Now, im totaly fine with that, its not that big of a deal to me, but i don’t rellay know anything else about the surgery process. Is it really possible that your toes or toe could fall off if the blood doesn’t flow back in there ( and if so, why wouldn’t blood be able to flow back through your toes) and second of all, do you seriously need to have a skin graft? it seems like there should be enough skin connecting the two toes to pull back down and stitch together. My third question is: How much does it hurt during and afterwards? I know that the numbing shot stings when its injected ( ive had a mole removed before) but during that surgery it didn’t hurt after at all, there was just a little tension on the skin. Will i need a wheelchair or crutches to take the pressure off the toes, or to have one foot done at a time, or will i be able to walk around as long as i have pain killers? Anyone whose had surgery before, successful or not, i would appreciate your feedback and the answers to any, and hopefully all, of my numerous questions. Thanks.

I just had my webbed toes separated about three weeks ago. It was the 2nd and 3rd toes of each foot, about 3/4 the way up. I had been putting this off for years–the fear of exposing my toes seemed to grow more every year. I was sick of not feeling free to go to the beach or pool. Plus, after a lot of walking, the webbing actually ached. So I went to a podiatrist, who said, “yeah, no problem.” So I went to an outpatient surgery clinic to have the doc do it. I was put under, and an hour later I had huge bandages on my feet and had to wear those big surgery sandals for a week. The pain wasn’t so bad, especially with the pain pills. The skin grafts came from the tops of my feet, but they didn’t really take very well. So for a few more weeks I have to put sterile pads between my toes and tape them up until they heal. It’s like having open blisters between the toes, and they are slowly healing (and itching). But it feels awesome to be able to spread my toes for the first time. I’ll feel free to walk around barefoot if I want to (even when alone, I would wear socks, because the webbing never ceased to freak me out). As far as cost, my insurance covers most of it (it’s usually covered, as corrective surgery for a congenital deformity, as they define it). About $4000 total–the biggest fee is for the use of the surgical clinic. Even if insurance did not cover it, it would still be worth it to me. I realize that a lot of web-toed people couldn’t care less about their feet, but I feel like a burden has been lifted, like I no longer have to keep some dreadful secret. No one knew about it except my parents and the serious girlfriends I’ve had–not even my best friends. I know this secrecy is irrational, but it’s always been a very big deal to me. I wish my parents had had it done when I was a baby, but not being webbies themselves, they had no idea how much grief it could cause me. Any recovering patients out there? How long did it take to heal up?