Massage is an amazing tool that can help not just adults, but babies as well!
Infant Massage is a great tool to have to help not just bond with baby, but also help relive any tension or discomforts they may be having.
What is Infant Massage?
Massage is a hands on technique of using rhythmic kneading, rubbing, and gentle touch to decrease muscle and joint tension and allow for relaxation of the body. This is helpful to decrease pain and tension in our body. This is the same for babies!
Infant Massage is great for decreasing tension and soothe baby, but is also great for bonding and stimulating their brain for development!
Infant Massage is not the same as an adult massage, where we go somewhere and a licensed massage therapist is giving us a massage in a dimly lit room with soothing music. You do it, the parents of your baby.
It is not 60-90 mins in length, closer to 5-15mins depending on the baby’s temperament.
It is done in a somewhat systematic order, moving from the lower extremities upwards to the head, ending with the face.
Benefits of Infant Massage
There are many benefits of Infant Massage for not just baby, but you as well!
- Promotes bonding with baby and parents/caregiver
- Improves Sleep (who couldn’t use better sleep with a baby!)
- Soothing for baby which leads to less Crying
- Improves circulation
- Reduces intestinal difficulty
- Strengthens the immune system
- Relaxes the body and enhances body awareness
- Promotes social, emotional, & cognitive development
How to do it?
When doing Massage, we want to work in a Toe-to-head order, starting with the legs and feet and then working our way upwards to the head and face. We end with the face because this usually will stimulate the baby to want to eat. If we start at the face, the baby may get fussy during the massage because they want to eat.
We can pick and choose which sections to do, baby will likely not tolerate the entire massage to begin with.
First we will want to set up our space. Laying a blanket for the baby and having any lotion or oils we want to utilize during the massage.
Ensuring baby is in the right mood is also helpful!
The best time I have found to do the massage is either after a bath or shortly before bed!
Then we move onto the actual massage:
- Starting with the legs moving in circles around the leg, one leg at a time. Moving away from the body if over 3 months, and moving towards the body if under 3 months. Then, working our way to their feet.
- Then, Move on to the belly. When thinking about the belly, we want to work clockwise. This is the only area that matters.
- There are many different techniques to work on the belly. You can use one at first or multiple, depending on the baby’s mood.
- My favorite is just a gentle massage moving in a circle over baby’s belly, starting as a big circle and getting smaller and smaller, ending at the belly button
- Then move up to the Chest, this can be done before the belly as well
- Then moving to each arm and shoulder, doing one at a time with a gentle circular motion, similar to the legs. Move away from baby for over 3 months and towards baby for under 3 months.
- Then you will flip baby to their belly to work on their back.
- One spot my daughter like when doing her back is when I press and massage around her sacrum. I can see her relax a lot when doing this!
- Then we will flip baby back over and move to the head, neck, and face.
- Head: Massaging gently around the scalp, behind and around the ears
- Face: Massaging the eyebrows, cheeks (swiping from the side nose to the ear), around the mouth, and even temples. Doing around the mouth last
- Neck: Working in a downward motion from the head to the shoulders
- Ending with the circles around the mouth and then feeding baby!
We need to be somewhat creative when doing Infant Massage with our babies. We may not get the full 15-minute routine in with baby calmly lying on the ground while we do it. We may need to pick them up and do it while we are holding them in different positions or while doing skin-to-skin tummy time with them.
My Experience
I have done infant massage with all three of my kids in one way or another. I took an Infant Massage Class when Lily was a baby with Catherine to learn all the techniques I know!
My daughters were way more tolerant of doing the full routine quicker, and it was a lot more enjoyable for us! We bonded, and they would laugh and giggle during it! I found the spot on their body that they loved being massaged the most and when they are upset, that is usually where I will go to first to massage, and they would calm down a bit quicker.
With my son, it definitely took longer for him to enjoy it and for it to be enjoyable for us both. He had some colic and other issues that he didn’t sleep great and was upset a lot of the time. So I tried the best I could to do some massage techniques with him when I would hold him or nurse him, but it was not as often as with my girls. He just did not enjoy laying on the ground as much. I do wish i was able to do more with him because I think it would’ve helped his colic issues.
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Learn More
You can learn more in our Infant Massage Course taught by Licensed Massage Therapist Catherine Terry.
She walks you through a whole routine you can do with your baby and tips on how to work it into your routine!
Other Option is find a massage therapist in your area skilled in infant massage that you can work with one-on-one with to learn the skills