Moundridge ? Tyler Huxman of rural Moundridge is a lot like any other 5-year old.

He has a lot of energy, has a favorite shirt and changes his mind often about what he wants to be when he grows up.

“I want to be a bull rider,” Tyler said recently.

His parents, Chris and DeAnn, said every day Tyler gives a different answer.

He’s not limited by his imagination, or by his physical traits – despite having only six fingers and four toes.

Tyler is affected by one of more than 150 types of Ectodermal Dysplasias syndrome.

“It is a mutation of the P63 gene,” Chris said. “The chances of this happening are basically none. It just happened. That’s his gene now.”

Tyler Huxman, 5, and his dad, Chris, share some up-close and personal time at their rural Harvey County home near Newton. Tyler is affected by one of more than 150 types of Ectodermal Dysplasias syndrome which affects about seven in 10,000 babies. Typical symptoms include missing teeth, abnormal or small nails, and the inability to perspire. Tyler has fewer fingers and toes than normal.

The syndrome affects about seven in 10,000 babies. Typical symptoms include missing teeth, abnormal or small nails, and the inability to perspire. The syndrome can also cause cleft lip, missing fingers or toes, respiratory infections, irregular skin pigmentation and hearing or vision impairment.

The Huxmans don’t know how it happened, but a gene mutation caused Tyler’s development to be a bit different.

He was born with only three fingers on each hand and two toes on each foot.

But he can still run, jump and play basketball with his older brother, Ryan, a first-grader at Moundridge Elementary.

“He can do anything another kid can do,” Chris said. “He might have to work a little harder at it.”

Like get a Girl Scout cookie out of the plastic sleeve – it can take a little more work and require some ingenuity. But Tyler gets the job done.

He has been raised to believe he can – his parents refuse to treat him as a handicapped child.

“The biggest thing is how people react,” DeAnn said. “We’ve had a big realization as to how cruel kids can be.”

Tyler will turn 6 this spring and is slated to start kindergarten in the fall. He currently attends preschool in Moundridge, where the family said there have been no problems.

“He is just Tyler to them,” Chris said. “I don’t have fears about what will happen with his children or what success he will or will not have, but how he will be treated by others.”

Chris said just last month the family was eating at a fast-food restaurant, and junior-high age customers in the booth behind the family were making fun of Tyler. They were making fun of how he eats and how he would have to do some tasks because of his lack of fingers.

“It takes a lot of restraint not to say or do something,” Chris said.

Tyler has endured 13 surgeries on his hands, feet and mouth.

“To this point, that’s the biggest challenge for me,” Chris said. “Watching the nurse carry him to the operating room and him not wanting to go.”