Why should you massage your baby?

| From birth, babies need as much as eating, touching, and showing affection.

Intimate mother-child, skin-to-skin contact has shown excellent results in the development and prevention of diseases in premature babies.

In this line, infant massage is a tool to enhance parent-child contact and to which multiple benefits are granted to the child, parents and society. These benefits do not remain only in the physiological field, but also influence the baby's emotional system, strengthening it and creating a framework of trust, security and emotional acceptance. This will promote a more balanced growth in all areas of your person.

The massage can be done at any age but it is aimed especially at babies from 0 to 18 months.

Benefits or pillars of infant massage

• Baby's organism

After birth, the baby knows the world through two basic senses: smell and touch. The skin is the largest and most powerful communication system available to the baby and, through smell, it is able to recognize its mother. Touch is so important to the child that the process of neuronal myelination (maturation and strengthening of neuronal connections) has been linked to tactile stimulation.

At the hormonal level there are also benefits for the child and the mother. Through massage, stress hormones are reduced and the production of endorphins (pleasure hormones), oxytocin and prolactin (essential hormones to promote and strengthen the bond with the baby and also necessary for the production of breast milk) are enhanced.

The immune system improves, since with the massage stress is reduced in the baby, favoring a state of tranquility and relaxation that strengthens its defensive system.

The gastrointestinal system at birth is immature. Infant massage helps its maturation and regulates it. It can be of great help for colic and gas, reducing pain and relieving constipation.

The massage helps the circulatory and lymphatic system, helping the venous return and having a draining effect.

The muscular system is relaxed and toned by the massage, it dissolves knots of physical and / or emotional tension.

• Sensory

Massage is a pleasant tool for the baby to become aware of himself, his body and its limits. Provides security, confidence and self-esteem that allows maintaining an adequate emotional balance.

• Tension-relaxation balance

We speak of tension, since the tactile, auditory, visual and emotional stimuli that are given to the baby in the massage, put him on alert, activating the cognitive processes of memorization and learning.

It is also a moment of relaxation since during the massage tension is reduced and channeled. The baby can enjoy an emotional release through body contact.

• Emotional bond

It is indisputable that it creates and nurtures parent-baby bonds, essential for the future relationship and communication between them. It has been seen that strengthening these bonds can reduce the probability of physical, mental or emotional abandonment of the child and, therefore, reduces the risk of child abuse.

The benefits of infant massage can be summarized as:

Benefits for the baby

• It helps to relax you, to release tension and anxiety, making it possible to lower the stress level.
• Stimulates the immune system and the nervous system.
• Helps develop awareness and coordination of your body.
• It stimulates the circulatory system and benefits the heart rate, respiration and helps improve digestion.
• It incorporates loving patterns of learning and contact with others.
• Improves sleep, helps you sleep more deeply and calmly.
• Acquire rhythms and routines.
• It helps to feel content, loved, heard, understood and accepted.
• It promotes a healthy state (affective, cognitive, physiological and motor).

Benefits for parents

• Helps non-verbal communication.
• Increase the parent / baby bond.
• Strengthen mutual respect.
• It favors the relaxation of stress for moms and dads.
• Helps mothers in postpartum depression.

Benefits for society

• Reduces violence and child abuse.
• Strengthen the bond.
• It favors the human relationship.
• Improves quality of life.

Who is it for?

It has a universal indication, that is, it is beneficial for all those families who want to experience the short and long-term benefits of physical contact with their babies.

In certain situations it is highly recommended such as in premature babies or in children with long hospital stays. Newborns who have required long hospitalizations in the neonatal unit, have a rejection of contact because this contact has been contextualized within medical manipulations (punctures, bandages, probes ...) Massage can help the acceptance of physical contact and decrease the anxiety and irritability of babies.

Another group of children where massage would be highly recommended is in children who suffer from a mental or physical handicap. Physical contact improves acceptance and bond with parents and helps the baby's emotional growth.