Baby massage is about learning to communicate your love for your baby through touch. You do a particular stroke ... and she smiles at you -- and you keep that forever. A great benefit of baby massage is the bonding. |
Baby massage provides relaxation, relief and stimulation. The program that I teach for the city comes from four main foundations of massage: Swedish, East Indian, Yoga and a series of gentle movements. |
If you massage a baby when asleep or physically ill with a fever, the benefits are not the same. As long as your healthcare practitioner says yes, go for it. |
It can stimulate insulin, which makes babies grow. Research in the late '80s showed that premature babies given a massage three times a day grew 47% more than those that were not. |
Massage gives parents a special tool. You can really calm a cranky baby with this; babies sleep deeper and longer after massage, and it can also give relief from colic, gas, teething pain, and chest congestion. |
We need to ask the baby for permission with our eyes before massaging them -- we massage with a baby, not to a baby. You start to know what things your baby does to show you she's ready to interact with you -- for each parent it's different -- a sound, a gesture. Then once you start massaging you need to watch for cues that the baby likes what you're doing. |