What are the benefits of an infant massage?
The ancient art of infant massage has been practiced for centuries by cultures around the world and is one of the earliest stimuli a parent can provide for their infant.
By using simple massage strokes, you can enhance your role as a parent and provide the right type of stimuli to promote optimal development. You and your baby will experience many benefits from infant massage during a child’s first years and for years to come. Here’s more about the benefits of this special technique from our physical therapists who are certified in infant massage.
Massaging your baby is a wonderful and loving way to begin a lifelong relationship
Massage has many other physical and emotional benefits for your baby. These benefits include:
Promoting social, emotional and cognitive development
Helping a baby relax and release tensions of daily stimuli
Decreasing irritability and excessive crying
Reducing gas, colic and intestinal difficulties
Regulating behavioral states and promoting sleep
Strengthening and regulating primary systems (i.e., respiratory, circulatory, nervous, musculature, digestive and endocrine)
There are also benefits for parents and the development of parenting skills. The act of massaging an infant helps:
Promote better understanding of infant cues
Enhance communication and emotional ties
Increase confidence and handling skills
Provide quality one-on-one interaction
Encourage parents to unwind, relax, and listen to their baby
How touch and infant massage can enhance development
Early development is influenced by touch and infant massage can support development in these five areas:
Communication skills – promotes emerging speech, direct eye gaze, listening and turn taking
Motor skills – improves muscle tone and coordination, increases body awareness
Social skills – encourages infant and caregiver to engage one another
Self-help skills – stimulates oral motor musculature awareness, lip closure, and relaxation of tension needed for swallowing
Cognition – enhances overall awareness of self and body boundaries, cause and effect, and increase in attention span
The growth in popularity for infant massage instruction is due to positive research outcomes, our changing lifestyles and a desire by parents to provide better care for their infants. Massaging babies provides an important source of stimulation involving the sensation of touch (tactile stimulation) and this stimulation promotes development and well-being as early psychological and sensory input is vital in facilitating an infant’s development. In addition, starting touch early in life improves parenting skills and promotes a baby’s overall health.
Infant massage promotes bonding, growth and much more
Infant massage encourages bonding through eye-to-eye contact, smiling, soothing vocal sounds, loving touch, caressing and mutual interaction. Studies show that bonding increases a parent’s feeling of attachment as well as their desire to nurture and care for their infant.
Massage can also enhance oxygen and nutrient flow to cells and improve breathing patterns and lung health (respiration). It can enhance the release of hormones, including growth hormones to help with weight gain, and can spark neurons in the brain to grow and branch out to improve mental processing/skills (cognition).
Foot Reflexology for Babies
Foot reflexology has nurturing, therapeutic effects for everyone!
But because baby’s feet are still not fully developed, they tend to respond better to reflexology.
The great thing about foot massage is that you can do it anywhere and even on top of socks. It is non-intrusive and can be very soothing for baby, particularly if they are feeling under the weather.
Massaging the feet can bring many benefits as they have reflex points that correspond to specific organs, muscles, bones and body systems. By gently applying pressure to these areas, you can help relieve discomfort from congestion and blockages.
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