• Tweet

• Tweet

[fbshare]As an Infant Massage Teacher for over 12 years now, I am still just as passionate about baby massage, as I was the first day I began.

Baby massage has many well-known benefits, but perhaps what is less well known is how baby massage may help babies with special needs. It is widely acknowledged that babies without touch have impaired emotional and physical development.

Baby Massage Benefits

Becky Elliott, a midwife and founder of Bababoom recently wrote about baby massage:

Touch is one of our most primitive but sensual forms of communication and one every baby is tuned in with before they are even born. Baby Massage is an amazing way of connecting with your baby, giving you the time and the skills to communicate with your baby using touch, verbal communication, eye contact and listening. In my experience as a midwife both caregiver and baby find the time shared during massage enhances bonding and teaches skills to comfort and relax your baby.”

Research has also established that regular baby massage helps with sleeping issues, anxiety and cognitive development.

During my classes I have sometimes had babies with special needs, ranging from low birth weight to cerebral palsy. In general these babies have shown marked improvement and there has been a positive affect on the relationship between mother and baby.

Research has shown that babies with cerebral palsy and autism who receive regular massage show less spasticity, better muscle tone and appear calmer, with better sleeping patterns. Eye contact, skin-to-skin touch and quality time together all help to provide a secure and loving base.

Baby massage has been proven to help with postnatal depression. When you massage your baby’s skin, the body produces the hormones prolactin and oxytocin. These hormones help to lower the levels of stress hormones in your body and help combat the symptoms of stress. Mum and baby both begin to relax and enjoy time together.

How to Get Started with Baby Massage

Not all babies enjoy massage initially. Sometimes in a class situation, sensitive babies find the new experience, undressing, and other babies crying, all too much. Some babies are touch averse and it can take a little time for them to get use to being handled, in what may be a very different way. If this is your experience, I suggest a very slow and gentle approach.

Baby massage is a shared, loving activity and not something we ‘do’ to babies. Begin just with a hand or foot massage, two or three minuets at time and build up slowly. Babies often enjoy a leg massage, but cannot tolerate tummy or arms. If this is your experience, gentle stroking and humming will gradually increase your baby’s ability to accept, relax and enjoy massage. During a class and at home, a sensitive baby may settle if you place an extra towel or blanket over their tummy, this appears to make them feel more secure and less vulnerable.

If you are keen to join a class, but lack confidence, because you feel that your baby appears less happy than others, then please be assured, all babies cry! At each class it may be a different baby who is unsettled. You cannot plan a class for each baby, because they all sleep and feed at different times. Massaging your baby at home, does give you the opportunity to be together when it suits both of you. Baby massage can become part of your daily routine and gets your baby used to massage. Your baby may be able to cope with a class, if massage is familiar to them.

When to Use Baby Massage

Baby massage, in my view has two important roles to play.

1. One is the quiet, sleepy, humming, bedtime massage. This may take place before or after a bath, generally followed by the final feed of the day. This massage should not be too late, tired babies are tired and will not necessarily want to be bothered.
2. The second important time is during the day. Perhaps you have a lull in your activities, a quiet day at home or spare time in the mornings. This massage, if you choose, can be a more up-beat action based massage, with lots of singing, action songs and movement. At all times, follow your baby’s cues and go with their mood. Really enjoy these special moments of learning about each other and getting to know one another.

It is important to remember that like learning to play the piano however, once is not enough and practice makes perfect! For baby massage to be of real benefit, babies need to be massaged regularly. It might be that this is daily, perhaps even 2-3 times a day, or at least a few times a week.

Using Rhymes and Songs During Massage

Together with baby massage, for me goes hand in hand, singing. I think the value of singing and humming during baby massage and in fact at any time, cannot be overstated. I have had classes with crying babies, (because they do!) and as soon as we begin to sing quietly they stop, not quite magic, but it definitely feels like it.

Nursery rhymes are excellent, because they are rhythmical and fun. Evidence suggests that an early introduction to singing and music helps with later reading skills.

So, get out your inner ‘x factor’, hum and sing and learn those nursery rhymes. They will be amazing for calming times, quiet times, fun times and together times!

Reference:

Cerebral Palsy Symptoms in Children Decreased following Massage Therapy, Early Child Development and Care Vol. 175, No. 5, July 2005, pp. 445–456

Sue Pitts is s a fully accredited therapist, trained in sports therapy, aromatherapy, reflexology, pregnancy massage, baby massage, and baby yoga. Previously she was a Primary School Teacher and used to be a breast-feeding counselor with the NCT.  Currently she teaches both Baby Massage and Baby Yoga. Her Gentle Hands Baby Massage Kit is available to help you learn to massage your baby in your own home. She has been married for 26 years and has three children, now 20, 23 and 25.