Infant massage has been practiced all over the world for centuries and is a common childcare practice in many cultures. It has recently become more prevalent in North America and Europe, as medical studies along with various researches have proven its many benefits.

What Is Infant Massage?
Infant Massage is a system of stroking your baby in a way that expresses love, respect, support and protection. It is a unique and special way to strengthen a special closeness and awareness between parent and baby. This gentle touch is often described as a “dance” between parent and baby in which the cues of the infant are understood, listened to and responded to.

Benefits for Both Parent and Child
Parents indicate increased feelings of competence and confidence in their parenting role as a result of infant massage. Parents feel more capable of helping their baby relax in times of stress. In addition, baby’s daily massage time offers a parent the opportunity to relax and unwind from the busy pace of life. For fathers, massage provides an opportunity for intimacy and a special time with their babies. Parents who experience delayed bonding from their infants shortly after birth due to illness find massage to be an especially beneficial means to help them become acquainted with their baby. For hospitalized babies whose earliest exposure to touch as associated with pain and discomfort due to medical procedures, massage is a way to re-experience touch as a positive loving encounter.

Benefits for Adopted and Foster Children
Infant massage provides a bonding and attachment for adopted and foster children. Ample evidence now proves that adoptive and foster parents can bond and form the same kinds of attachments that biological parents and their children form. Researchers David Brodinsky, Leslie Singer, Mary Stein, and Douglas Ramsey, among others, have found no difference in the development of parents’ attachment to adopted and biological babies of the same age. If adoptive or foster parents provide a familial atmosphere, a warm, affectionate, and consistent response to a baby’s needs, trust is learned and an attachment develops.

Healthy Touch
It is important that our children know the difference between healthy and unhealthy touching. Infant massage is a great way to positively teach a child the difference. A child who has been massaged from infancy has several advantages over the child who is simply educated or warned about unhealthy or unwanted touch. The massaged child knows what healthy, loving touch feels like. Because of the emotional bonds infant massage produces between parent and child, the older child feels close to his parents and tends to talk about his feelings more often. Thus, he would be much more likely to report to his parents if he were concerned about the way someone talked to him or tried to touch him. In addition, massage time becomes “talking time,” a time when parent and child can discuss things that are important to both of them. It is a perfect opportunity to talk about touching with your older child, and to help him learn how to protect himself. You can tell him, “always tell me or daddy or your teacher is somebody tries to touch you in a way that you don’t like. I promise, no matter what, you will be safe.” The type of interaction afforded by regular massage and Touch Relaxation helps your child develop a positive self-image and a sense of ownership of his body. He also develops a keen awareness of feelings and body language. The respect we show in asking permission to massage to move to different parts of the body teaches him that people should ask his permission for intimate touch. In general, massaged children grow up feeling confident and comfortable in their bodies, and they openly communicate with their parents. It is a tradition with long-term benefits, and it is definitely worth the effort!

Benefits
Infant Massage helps to strengthen and regulate respiratory and circulatory systems, along with aiding in digestion colic, teething, constipation, restlessness and sleeplessness. It also enhances neurological development along with enhancing the immune system response. It enhances bonding and communication and helps the baby release tension. Many studies conducted by the Touch Research Institute, have shown evidence of significant weight gain for the pre-term baby.

• Premature infants who are regularly massaged are hospitalized an average of six fewer days than non-massaged babies.
• Hospital charges average $10,000 less for massaged babies! (USA Today, May 28, 1996)
• All infants, whether premature, underweight or healthy/full-term, thrive and benefit from massage.
• One study showed massaged infants gained 47% more weight than unmassaged infants given the same number of calories. (Tiffany Fields, University of Miami School of Medicine, "Tactile Kinesthetic Stimulation Effects on Pre-term Neonates" Pediatrics Journal #777, 1986)
• Massaged babies are more alert when awake, more easy to soothe and readily able to sleep
• Massage teaches a baby how to relax.
• Massaged infants showed better performance on the Brazelton Scale with habituation, orientation, motor activity and regulation of behavior.
• Massage promotes emotional security, respect and a healthy body image.
• Infant massage stimulates digestion, the passing of gas and relieves the symptoms of colic.
• Massage increases Circulation and can assist with normal growing pains.
• When parents massage their babies, they promote quality time, create better bonding and increase confidence in their own parenting skills. They enhance intimacy, understanding and the ability to nurture.
• Nurturing touch is a natural way to relieve stress for both caregiver and baby.
• A parent who massages his or her infant becomes more aware of the baby's cues and learns to understand the baby's special and unique needs.

Please Note: All babies should be at least 4 weeks old. Please contact the FirstHealth front desk for further information on infant massage.

Resources:
The Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, www.dhob.edu/Clinical_Services/Infant_massage.html
Plefka, S. CIMI, www.babysweetcheeks.com
Field,T. Touch Research Institute, http://www.miami.edu/touch-research/
Dellinger-Bavolek, M.S.E. CIMI, Infant Massage: Communicating Love through Touch, Park City, Utah: Family Development Resources, Inc.
McClure, Vimala 2000, Infant Massage, A Handbook For Loving Parents. New York: Bantam Books.