The benefits of massage therapy is NOT limited just to adults, infant massage offers great benefits for your child.

Our daughter, Shivani has received a massage everyday since birth and she has a wonderful personality and sleeps 9-10 hours a night. And now her brother, Ronak just 15 months younger than her gets the same treatment and at only 7 months is already sleeping through the night.

Benefits of Infant Massage:

Dr. Tiffany Fields has scientifically studied the effects of massage on groups of infants in various stages of health and has found that giving premature infants massages have shown is beneficial. Studies have have shown increased weight gain, reduce stress from child birth (yes birth is very stressful for infants) and more regular sleep patterns all have been documented.

Infant massage provides many physical benefits to the baby as well to the parents, touch is a very powerful way to communicate to your baby, its a fact that touch is as much important to an infant than food is. Infant massage has also been proven beneficial to babies born with breathing disorders, babies born to drug addicted parents and other health related dysfunctions.

Read more on the benefits of infant massage here

1. Reduced Stress for mother and baby
2. Increased bonding with your child
3. Increased intellectual development
4. Improved alertness when awake and better sleep periods when resting
5. Helps with digestive pain relief
6. Improved circulation

Giving an infant massage:

Training; no training is necessary for infant massage when massaging your own child. Always seek a professional when having someone else massage your child. There are many books, DVD’s and online videos on infant massages that can show you the basics of infant massage to get you started.

You can always have a trained professional massage therapist show you the basic strokes as well. Doreen Jattan the co-owner of Roman Paradigm Massage & Therapy available for training if you would like her guidance.

And this is great for daddy’s as well. I give my daughter foot reflexology sessions whenever we watch TV together, I use these moments as a way to bond with my daughter. And plus, I thought I read somewhere that giving foot reflexology sessions to your baby will make your kids smarter.

Here’s how…

• Its best to start with your baby on their back this way, you can see, your babies facial expressions.
• The best time to give your baby a massage is either at bath time or right before bed. In this way, it can be easily incorporated in their regular routine.
• Stay focused on the baby comfort and expressions. Use a baby safe lotion and keep the massage to 15 – 20 minutes depending on your babies willingness to receiving a massage. And remember that your baby to some degree controls the massage.
• Natural oils are preferred over synthetic or petroleum based. Synthetic, mineral and animal based products are likely to clog your babies pores.
• Hold the hand or foot of your baby while your other hand does a “milking” action on your baby’s limb. You can gently do a squeezing and twisting motions while working towards your baby heart. When your bay is face down, you can massage your babies back, legs and glutes (Doreen’s mom believes that she can shape Shivani’s butt and make her cheeks bigger) with massage. LOL!