Why do people count fingers and toes on babies?

I have seen people counting the fingers and toes on babys and I was wondering why they do that? Do babys sometimes have more or less than the right number of fingers and toes?

Rarely, but it does happen, children are born with six fingers or six toes. Some parents are a bit out of it when the baby is born, as a result, they tend to "go overboard"...most of the time, it's due to lack of sleep, stress, and delirium.

It's a bit of an obsessive, let me see if he's alright, let me know he's doing well, let me see my child healthy kind of crazy emotion that parents often go through when their baby is first born- a lot of parents research possible defects and things that could go wrong, trying to be experts on what should happen when the baby is born. A lot of parents also listen intently for the baby's cry, try to check their eyes, little things like that.

LOL, no..here is why they do it. They have been nervous with worry for most of the 9 months of pregnancy that something could be wrong with the baby. They are so excited when it is born that they say "yep, 10 fingers, 10 toes everything is going to be alright". It's just a way of saying "whew, we made it and the baby is healthy".