Baby Massage Day: Health benefits of massage for your babies | Health

Baby massage has been a part of custom and tradition in India. Massaging has soothing and calming effect on the body. It improves blood circulation and aids overall development of an infant. Scientific studies prove that giving massage to your newborn can help with weight gain, pain relief, reduce chances of jaundice and result in better mental motor development. Besides it also helps the little one to feel relaxed and sleep well. Giving massage to the baby can also help new mother deal with her postpartum depression or baby blues as the act of giving massage releases happy hormone oxytocin. Besides it also helps build bonding between mother and her child. On occasion of Baby Massage Day (April 8), here are health benefits of giving massage to your babies. (Also read: Baby blues to hair loss; common health issues that may affect new mothers)

“Massage therapy is one of the oldest forms of treatment in the world, having first been described in China during the second century B.C. and soon after in India and Egypt. Infant massage is described as a structured touch of the skin and initiated few days after baby’s birth. Touch is our most primal sense and is associated with the largest organ in the human body — our skin. Of all the senses to develop, touch is the first and begins before the baby is born. Performing infant massage differs worldwide with respect to duration, intensity, extent, use of oil, and parental involvement. In countries like India, massage apart from the parents is commonly done by infant’s grandparents, relatives and masseuse employed specifically for babies’ bath and massage. Baby massage strengthens the attachment between mother and baby and hence it is recommended that massage be preferably carried out by mothers only,” says Dr Prakash Desai, Consultant – Paediatrician & Neonatologist, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, Bangalore (Malleshwaram).

HEALTH BENEFITS OF MASSAGE FOR YOUR BABIES

Massage is one of the easiest and most natural ways of establishing a sense of touch and eye contact which improves attachment between mothers and babies.

“Proper stimulation of the baby’s sense of touch affects psychosocial development positively. The early contact between mother and her newborn gives confidence to the mother’s breastfeeding, in addition to developing the mother’s attachment behaviour. Attachment is an emotional and expected condition between the mother and the baby that begins in the first days of life and infant massage is one way of promoting this. Other ways are breast feeding, kangaroo mother care and eye to contact and responding to baby’s cues,” says Dr Desai.

On the occasion of Baby Massage Day (April 8) Dr Desai further explains benefits of massage for the babies:

Weight gain

A significant weight gain following regular massage was shown in few studies for infants at home and also and in premature babies receiving massage in neonatal intensive care.

Colic pain

Giving infant massage has shown to improve infant’s crying behaviour with improvement in sleep pattern. This could be interpreted as reduced pain. Gentle massage over child’s abdomen and with hips being flexed and mild pressure on the tummy has shown benefit in improving colic symptoms in babies.

Jaundice

Jaundice is commonly seen in infants for the first couple of weeks. Some research shows the babies having regular massage had decreased jaundice (serum bilirubin) levels. This can relate to an increase in the frequency of bowel movements.

Other health benefits

Baby massage has several other health advantages, including improving baby’s skin texture, helping baby’s bone and muscle develop, enhancing digestion and encouraging restful sleep.

It’s also noted that massaging the baby reduces maternal stress levels, improves sense of well-being, and improves production of milk due to hormonal changes. Massages can reduce baby’s stress level and improve immunity due to hormonal mechanism and regularise blood flow and heartbeat.

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