Baby Massage

Babies enjoy being held, cuddled, and stroked. Affectionate touches are essential for the baby’s health and emotional development. In addition to the loving touches you apply while feeding, changing diapers, and putting your baby to sleep, you can also add baby massage to your daily care routine.

Benefits of Baby Massage

Baby massage strengthens the bond between the baby and parents and develops feelings of love and trust.
Baby massage improves the sleep quality of the baby and parents, reduces stress hormones, and increases ‘’feel-good’’ hormones.
Baby massage reduces colic symptoms such as irritability and sleeplessness.
Baby massage ensures better digestion of food and reduces constipation.
Baby massage supports the health of the circulatory system and strengthens the immune system.
Baby massage is linked to healthy weight gain, reduced jaundice, and pain relief.
Baby massage supports cognitive performance, non-verbal communication skills and motor development thanks to the interaction it provides with the massager.

General Tips for Baby Massage

You can apply back, hands, feet, shoulders, full-body, and head massage to your baby.
Make strokes gentle but firm, and not ticklish.
Avoid massaging your baby immediately after feeding, wait at least 30 minutes.
To massage your baby, choose times when your baby is calm and alert. It can be done after bathing or during diaper change.
Always watch for signals that your baby is enjoying the massage. Just like adults, babies sometimes may not be in the mood to receive sensory stimulation.
Using oil helps your hands move smoothly over your baby’s body. You can use a natural oil such as grapeseed, sunflower or olive. You can also use non-medicated baby rubs for babies aged 3 months and older. Do not use adult massage oils, hand lotion or nut-based oils such as hazelnut oil or almond oil.

Resources:

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2024). The Benefits of Baby Massage. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/Pages/the-benefits-of-baby-massage.aspx
Mindell, J. A., Lee, C. I., Leichman, E. S., & Rotella, K. N. (2018). Massage-based bedtime routine: impact on sleep and mood in infants and mothers. Sleep medicine, 41, 51–57.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2017.09.010
Seidl, A., Tincoff, R., Baker, C., & Cristia, A. (2015). Why the body comes first: effects of experimenter touch on infants’ word finding. Developmental science, 18(1), 155–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12182
Mrljak, R., Arnsteg Danielsson, A., Hedov, G., & Garmy, P. (2022). Effects of Infant Massage: A Systematic Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(11), 6378. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116378