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BENEFITS FOR BABY
Although there are times when a professional will do the
massageon newly medically stable preemies in the ICU,
for example, or infants with neurological damage, or
going through withdrawal from illicit drugs, or when
therapists are using specific modalities such as
craniosacral workmost infant massage involves teaching
the parents how to take over. We are, in a way,
midwiving this, says Ramsey, who eventually went on to
establish Babys First Massage, which trains and
educates infant massage practitioners.
Typically, teaching a parent to massage his or her child
involves several sessions with infant and parent (or
parents), as the therapist slowly hands over the reins.
Past AMTA President Brenda Griffith remembers teaching
one nervous, first-time mom how to massage her newborn.
I did one leg while she did the other. I felt that both
mother and baby needed that grounding, she says. By
the end of the first session, I could see a difference.
By the end of the third session, it was a piece of a
cake.
You can have the parent work on one limb as you work the
other, as Griffith did, or you can work on a doll next
to the infant, showing the appropriate touch and
strokes. Whatever makes everyone most comfortable,
Griffith says.
To
this end, be articulate with the parents, and clearly
express what youre doing and how it benefits the child.
Benefits may include colic relief, which is often the
result of a highly sensitive system. Massage helps these
children relax and moves the gas through the intestines.
Stress is the primary cause of digestion disturbances,
says Takikawa.
Our culture is much too fast for babies, so we have to
intentionally slow down to get to a place thats healthy
for them.
Other benefits include soothing the muscle tugs that
accompany bone growthalso known as growing painsand
helping restless infants organize erratic sleep
patterns.
Massage also benefits infants with Down Syndrome, where
the child often has low muscle tone and difficulty
digesting. For children with cerebral palsy, massage
helps to lengthen and relax muscles and improve the
range of motion in the joints.
Older children benefit as well. If you give a normal
child a massage before a development assessment, he or
she will perform significantly better, says Field.
Massage works on the vagus nerve, which stimulates the
heart to slow down, a necessary step in focusing.
Massage also reduces cortisol, which can reduce
depressive symptoms, and eases pain for ailments like
juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Massage seems to help
even the sickest children, without side effects.
When you reduce cortisol, you are enabling immune cells
to survive, says Fields. These are the natural killer
cells found on the front lines of the immune system, and
help fight serious diseases such as cancer, as well as
the more common childhood ailments such as asthma,
dermatitis, even diabetes, where glucose levels
decrease. And no data exist, says Fields, that show any
increase in cancer cells through massage.
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American Massage Therapy Association®
