The Power of Touch: Infant Massage

By Rachel Capstack

We all know that babies are ready to absorb all that they are exposed to. Mothers and/or primary caregivers are individuals that truly desire to connect with their little one. The act of massaging your infant is one act of love that will allow for deeper bonding to occur.

There are many positive effects of massage: your baby will sleep better, crying is lessened, he/she will learn to self-soothe and a sense of self-worth. It's also excellent for colic treatment, improving the function of all body systems (respiratory, circulatory, nervous, digestive, eliminative, and endocrine), reducing fear and excitement thresholds, and increasing gentleness and friendliness. This wonderful act takes only fifteen minutes of your time. And you will see how truly wonderful this is.

I am a licensed massage therapist and a certified infant massage instructor. I began massaging my daughter, Anabel, at 3 weeks of age. After a couple of weeks she truly loved it, and I loved the time with her. I taught my husband how to massage, so he could also benefit from the bonding. This act has had excellent results for both father and daughter.

Now Anabel is 10 months old and I have seen many of the positive results in her. She can easily calm herself down, she plays well by herself or with others, we have solved constipation issues without the doctor, and she is loving and happy. Because of her age, she now gets a massage only once a week, and it has become more of a game for her, but the benefits still show.

Additional resources:
http://www.zerotothree.org/massage.html
http://www.parents.com/parents/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/parents/story/data/5203.xml
http://www.childbirth.org/articles/baby/infantmassage.html
http://www.iaim-us.com/