To Your Health
May, 2008 (Vol. 02, Issue 05) |
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The Power of Touch
Ask Your Doctor About the Health Benefits of Infant Massage
By Christie Bondurant
For centuries, massage has been used to promote wellness by increasing circulation, improving immune function and releasing emotional stress. More and more studies are showing that infants may enjoy these same healthful benefits.
Infant massage is an age-old parenting practice used in many cultures including Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America. As a daily routine, mothers in India have been massaging their newborns since 3000 B.C., much longer than their Western counterparts. It's only in the past 30 years that infant massage has taken hold in the West. For parents who practice infant massage, calming a baby has never been so easy.
There are many reasons for infant massage therapy, from serious problems preterm infants face to common discomforts healthy full-term infants endure. Preterm infants, along with their parents, face some hard realities. Massage can help soothe the daily discomforts of these tiny frames, and in some cases promote a faster recovery.
In a recent study published in Infant Behavior and Development, preterm infants exposed to daily stressors in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) showed reduced stress behaviors after massage therapy. "Infants received three 15-min. massages administered at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day for five consecutive days. The massages were started on a Monday and ended on Friday of the same week, for a total of 15 massages. The preterm infants received their massages from licensed massage therapists who were trained on a structured protocol." The study concluded that even after such limited exposure of only five days, preterm infants "showed fewer stress behaviors from the first to the last day," suggesting the therapy "desensitizes the preterm infant to the stressful environment of the NICU, perhaps by enhancing longer periods of parasympathetic activity." The study also suggests that over time, massage therapy has a stress-reducing or "pacifying effect" to infants.
For those familiar with infant massage, you are more than likely aware of the studies showing improvements in weight gain in preterm infants who receive infant massage; however, other benefits may surround the much-needed weight gain. The Journal of Pediatrics (July 2005) reported, "The weight gain experienced by preterm neonates receiving moderate-pressure massage therapy may be mediated by increased vagal activity and gastric motility." The study concluded that the weight gain in preterm infants might be directly related to "massage-induced increases in vagal activity, which in turn may lead to increased gastric motility and thereby weight gain."
