Toddler has six inch tail removed after relatives nickname him ‘little monkey’

Surgeons have removed a 15 centimetre tail from a baby who was born with a rare birth defect.

The family of Yang Yang, who was nicknamed ‘little monkey’ by relatives, waited until he was 11-month-old to get the six inch growth taken off.

‘It wasn’t a big bother in the beginning – I’d just lift the ‘tail’ when I needed to change his nappies,’ the unnamed mother, from Yibin, in south-western China’s Sichuan Province, said.

But she did finally decide to get the operation after Yang Yang developed several symptoms, including irregular bowel movements and weakness in his leg, according to People’s China Daily.

The neural tube deformity, which has a two to three per cent chance of occurring, normally forms during the third month of pregnancy.

The doctor who removed the tail at Southwest Hospital, in Chongqing, said the growth was most probably due to the child’s mother not taking enough folic acid supplements (vitamin M or Bc) during pregnancy.

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