about baby massage
Baby massage is an old eastern tradition of massaging babies from birth. Some cultures say it stimulates their survival mechanisms and help them resist disease. It is now widely accepted that giving your baby a regular (daily) massage aids good health and increases bonding.
benefits of baby massage
Many parents have hectic lifestyles, juggling a host of responsibilities and activities, and many new mothers have the added stress of having to return to work due to financial commitments. Quality time with children can often be affected because of this and infant massage, an age old tradition, is simple, free, can be administered almost anywhere and has a host of emotional and physical benefits for both parents and baby.
Benefits include:
- Relaxation: Promotes better sleep, relieves tension, proven to increase levels of oxytocin ('the love hormone')
- Relief: Helps digestion, relief for teething pains, can help with gas and colic
- Stimulation: Helps strengthen babies systems including respiratory, circulatory, muscular and intestinal. Studies have shown increased weight gain, and immune function
- Interaction: Aids bonding and communication through nurturing touch and increased understanding of baby's non-verbal cues and responses;
Research specific to the benefits of infant massage has been ongoing since the mid 1970's. This research has been conducted at various institutes and with babies who were premature, exposed to drugs in utero, and infants that had motor problems. All these categories of babies benefited from the nurturing touch of infant massage. These benefits included weight gain, neurological development, decreased hospitalization, and improved digestion.
the history of IAIM
Vimala McClure founded the International Association of Infant Massage (www.iaim.net) 1976 in the U.S, after she observed the positive effect daily massage had on infants in India. The 1990s saw an expansion of Infant massage into hospital-based inpatient and outpatient programmes, as well as community programmes servicing families of at-risk and/or premature babies and those with special needs.
The purpose of IAIM is ' to promote nurturing touch and communication through training, education and research so that parents, caregivers and children are loved, valued and respected throughout the world community'.
online articles
Massaging small babies with sunflower seed oil is a cheap and easy way to protect them against infections, doctors advise - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4314859.stm
The benefits of baby massage for special care babies produced by BLISS - http://www.bliss.org.uk/pdfs/benefits_massage2.pdf
The importance of touch in parent-infant bonding - http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/fall00/infantbonding.htm
Relieve Infant Colic With Massage - http://www.healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=8909