About Infant Massage

All babies differ – in their personalities, their responses and their rates of development. They are also similar in many ways. They all need care, love, protection, security and opportunities to learn. Massaging your baby can provide all of these things and provides you with the opportunity to convey your love, your understanding and your attention.

This in turn gives your baby the self-confidence and the foundation to allow them to become a person who loves people and enjoys life.

With the arrival of your newborn baby nothing can prepare you for the challenges ahead. Baby Massage can give the parent a better understanding of the babies needs, how your baby communicates and some practical tools to use for a variety of ailments. This in turn can give you the confidence to overcome some of the challenges you may encounter and give you both more time to enjoy your journey together.

Baby Massage can also give your baby the opportunity to gain the confidence to know when they do or do not want touch. By always respecting that your child is not ready for massage they can gain the confidence to say ‘no’. This is a very important skill for children to learn.

Baby Massage is great for mothers, fathers, grandparents and caregivers to learn. It is great to learn with a newborn infant; however it can be taught at any age.

The benefits of Infant Massage are many and range from the physical to the emotional for both parents and baby.

Benefits for Infants

• Enhances attachment and bonding.
• Relaxes muscles.
• Reduces crying.
• Strengthens immune system.
• Enhances cognitive and motor development.
• Relief of discomfort.
• Improves sleep by increasing serotonin levels.
• Enhances body awareness.
• Increase weight gain in low birth weight infants.
• Provides a wide range of benefits with children with special needs such as Cerebral Palsy, Asthma, Down’s syndrome, Diabetes and many more.
• Increases vagal activity – affects digestive, respiratory, circulatory systems.
• Relieves colic, constipation.
• Assist with reflux.
• Enhances co-ordination.
• Speeds myelination of brain and nervous system. This improves brain-body communication and enhances neural-cell firing
• Fun for both parent and child.

Benefits for Parents

• Increase confidence.
• Increase awareness of baby’s body language.
• Helps overcome postnatal depression.
• Less anxiety.
• Enhances bonding.
• Creates an opportunity for fathers to bond and be more hands on with baby.
• Creates a relaxing time for you to share with your baby.