The benefits of Baby massage

Massage provides several natural benefits to the baby such as:

1. Boosts psychological and social development: According to a 2012 report by Asian Nursing Research Journal, stimulation of the baby’s sense of touch has a positive effect on the baby’s psychological and social development along with strengthening the baby’s bond with the parent.
2. Relieves stress, relaxes muscles: Massage relieves stress in babies by stimulating the release of oxytocin, a feel-good neurohormone and decreases the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. It relaxes muscles, stimulates their growth, and even works particularly great with colicky babies.
3. Stimulates nervous system: Massage is beneficial to the baby’s nervous system since it greatly improves baby’s motor skills development.
4. Helps baby sleep better: Babies sleep better when they are massaged. This has several benefits from faster muscle gain to improved immune response. Infants who are massaged just before bedtime produced more melatonin – a sleep-regulating hormone.
5. Can improve the quality of life for differently-abled babies: It is the best way to soothe babies with Down’s syndrome or cerebral palsy as it provides a reassuring way to effectively calm them down. Premature babies show better motor development when massaged regularly. They even gain weight faster than premature babies that are never massaged. In fact, massaged premature babies, show lesser hospital terms in general. Babies born to depressed mothers, when massaged, cried less and showed greater emotional and social development as they grew.
6. Great for circulatory system with other benefits: Massage improves the blood circulation and decreases the level of discomfort caused by gas or acidity, congestion, and teething. Massage stimulates the nerves that pass through the digestive tract thus benefiting the digestive system.
7. Way to deal with postnatal depression: Massage is an effective way to deal with postnatal depression among mothers. Depressed mothers showed improved mood and behavior when they massaged their babies regularly. When it comes to fathers, research has shown that fathers, who regularly massage their babies develop improved self-esteem. They also display increased involvement in baby’s care and interact with babies more frequently.