ASPS: Counseling Parents

If you're curious how plastic surgeons are instructed to counsel parents of children with congenital hand malformations -- there's a resource on the website of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons that will give you some insight. You'll need to scroll almost to the bottom of the page to find the relevant section. Key section is excerpted here:

"Consultation with the patient's parents must stress the importance of restoring function to the malformed hand, even if cosmetic appearance must be a secondary consideration. The unique function of the hand throughout life mandates that function be restored as fully as possible--e.g., providing pinch and grip function will be essential to many occupations."