Benefits for Baby:
As well as learning to massage your baby, there are wonderful flexibility exercise moves that will assist your baby in un-winding after being in utero for months.
Benefits of Infant Massage
Many resources are available should you like to know more about Touch. A couple of my favorite books are:
Touch by Tiffany Field
A short read but full of information
The Power of Touch by Phyllis K Davis, Ph.D.
Untouched by Mariana Caplan, M.A.
Touching, The Human Significance of the Skin by Ashley Montagu
Accepting Your Power to Heal by Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N.
The benefits that infants receive from massage make up a long list. One of the most important and fascinating realizations is what "touch" does for us. Touch is the first sense to develop, and continues to function even after seeing and hearing begin to fade with age.
After reading The Power of Touch, by Phyllis K Davis, I felt justified that touching each other has its own list of benefits. Touching is not just a biological need, but a communication tool as well.
For a baby the first sensory input in life comes from the sense of touch while still in the womb, and continues after birth by being swaddled, having diapers changes, feeding,etc. So many things are done to an infant without permission, even right after birth: i.e. being weighed, being cleaned, receiving shots and poked around on to make sure all their parts are where they are supposed to be. The wonderful part of massage is that we are asking the infant for permission, and paying a great deal of attention to assure that massage is touch they grow to love and accept.
The young child starts out exploring the physical world through touch. We know everything a baby touches goes into their mouth. By exploring they learn the many facts of shapes, softness compared to sharpness, temperatures and textures.
Touch is critical for an infant's growth, development and health and can continue through their lives into adulthood. Receiving massage during one's life span can create wholeness, acceptance and the list goes on. The lack of touch has been shown to have a diverse effect on humans, study's have been done to prove this.
As well as touching your infant for comfort, infant massage can assist baby with these other benefits that include (but are not limited to):
<> assists in baby learning trust;
<> learning where body parts are in relation to one another;
<> can release stress;
<> has been shown to improve sleeping patterns;
<> assists in strengthening immune system;
<> can reduce the discomfort of colic, gas, and constipation;
<> assists in developing and improving muscle tone;
<> allows a fun time for baby and caregivers;
<> a great bonding tool for fathers and other caregivers.
Infant massage is not just for the well baby, it has wonderful benefits for special needs children and premature babies. A study done at the University of Miami Touch Research found that massage on preemies twice a day for fifteen minutes each time over a ten day period showed a weight gain of 15% to 47%, some were discharged up to six days earlier, and they spent more time awake and active.
I love the writing of Frederick Leboyer:
It is through our hands that we speak to the child, that we communicate.
Touching is the primary language...
the newborn baby's skin has an intelligence, a sensitivity that we can only begin to imagine.
How, the, ought we to touch - to handle - a newborn baby?
Very simply: by remembering what this infant has just left behind. By never forgetting that everything new and unknown might terrify and that every thing recognizable and familiar is reassurance.
To calm the infant in this strange, incomprehensible world into which it just emerged, it is necessary - and enough - that the hands holding should speak in the language of the womb.
I would love to teach all parents how to massage their infants and have learned through feedback what a wonderful experience this is for both baby and caregivers. Please contact me if you live in the Huntsville, Alabama area through email, or call 256-738-0637. I would love to talk to parents, and am also available to speak to groups and communities about the wonderful benefits of Infant Massage.
Reminder: please remember that massaging your infant should be a relaxing and fun time. It should never be a chore, if you are having an especially troubling or stressful day, wait till you are feeling more calm as baby can sense if you are considering this time more work, rather than an enjoyable experience. With infant massage there are no hard and fast rules.
