The Joys of Giving Your Baby a Massage

Can there ever be anything to rival the feeling of bonding with your tiny infant? Touch communicates love, caring, and nurturing. Your baby will benefit from massage and the gentle touch of the mother or father. You can feel the baby’s body relax and your body will be relaxed and stress and tension erased while you are comforting and loving your tiny child.

Tests prove that an infant needs touch to help them develop properly, give them emotional support and promote over-all health. Massaging your infant will help them emotionally, psychologically, and physiologically. Just as massage helps adults relax tension, relieve stress, and promote good health, it does the same for a new infant. Massage can improve circulation, relieve colic or gas, and strengthen the immune system. Massage helps with self-esteem issues and the child’s sense of worth.

If a baby is upset, massage is the perfect way to ease their tension and reduce irritability. It soothes them and makes them feel more secure. We live in a fast paced world and an infant can pick up on the stress, tension, and fast-paced world they live in. If the infant doesn’t have some relief from the stress, its body can develop defenses and may eventually shut down or block learning abilities. If a baby is taught to relax early in their life it can provide them a lifelong tool for dealing with stress and tension.

The benefits of infant massage have not been fully explored. There is a clinical study at the University of Miami that is studying the benefits of nurturing touch. Reports show that depriving an infant of touch can reduce the body’s immunity, therefore the ability to fight off infections that may be harmful. Reports tell us children who were separated from their mother at birth are especially susceptible to upper respiratory infections, colds, diarrhea and constipation. Studies also prove infants who have been massaged by their mother has fewer colds and fewer gastrointestinal problems.

One study found that premature infants who were massaged gained an average of 47 percent more weight than infants in another group who did not receive massage therapy. Most hospital nurseries now include touch therapy in their care of babies in the neonatal center. Hospitals are encouraging that babies be placed in the rooms with their mothers to help develop the bond between them. The baby in the same room encourages interaction and touch between the mother, father, family members, and the new baby. Bonding happens much faster and babies are happier and better adjusted.

Massages given to infants will also carry into adult life. Babies who have a secure bonding with those who care for them grow up to be happier and healthier adults. They trust easier and have more compassion. They give compassion, love, and trust to others and they are less aggressive. The importance of breast-feeding, massage, and the attention given to a baby will help them grow into compassionate and loving adults and prove to be less inclined to violence.