As a disabled parent, I have found children are always curious, I have made sure that my children have a simple, easy explanation that they can tell their friends when they ask. They usually do ask, but then I am in a wheelchair. I find that 98% of the time, the children accept the explanation and don’t ask again.
I think as a society we attach too much shame to children asking about disabilities and differences, as a child I remember being repeatedly scolded and told off for being rude by my Aunt for what was innocent curiosity. As a disabled person, I much prefer to answer children who are curious. Scolding a child and telling them off for innocent curiosity, is not a way to teach inclusion and encourage acceptance. Children today, are genuinely the generation most accepting of differences, so far. My ds (white) took great offence when an elderly relative made a racist (using terms that were deemed acceptable in their generation) comment, all be it innocently meant. Both of my dc have grown up in a world where we have taught that skin colour is exactly the same as hair and eye colour, where homosexuality/ lgbt are deemed normal, gay marriage normal, Trans normal, disability normal, all races and genders are equal, as well,as all religions equal. This generation as a result is much more open to differences. Those children who are not accepting of differences, are unfortunately negatively influenced by their Families.
I personally, wouldn’t go for a prosthetic, to me, a prosthetic may draw more attention to your daughters hand than without it. As long as your daughter has adapted to using her hand and doesn’t require a prosthetic for day to day use, then I wouldn’t bother with it. (Obviously if your daughter wants to play an instrument that may require the use of a prosthetic, then by all means that would be fantastic!
I would just teach your daughter a simple informative description, to explain what happened to her hand. I would be very surprised if many children notice to begin with, or if they continue to probe after initial asking. I would imagine most children will see it like a grazed knee or a cut that required stitches.
My Dad lost the top half of his left index finger during an accident with machinery at work. My children didn’t notice it until my Dad drew attention to it. He used to make up funny stories about how he ‘lost’ his finger- claiming that he lost it whilst picking his nose, or fighting the big bad wolf, or from scratching his bottom (which made for some amusing reassurance for my autistic and very literal ds! )
I want to add that I am not suggesting that anyone is deliberately telling children off for curiosity, I am just sharing my own experiences/ beliefs. I am also autistic, so I just want to add that I have meant 0 offence.