Baby Massage Day

Baby massage has many benefits for babies, on a physical, psychological, and emotional level.

To raise awareness about the benefits of massaging a child among the parents, Baby Massage Day is celebrated the second Saturday in April.

What is Baby Massage?

Baby massage offers many benefits including physical, psychological and emotional. It helps children develop body awareness and coordination of movements, to relax and develop a faster sleep-wake cycle.

Massage is also a perfect way to strengthen your connection with your baby, as you learn to understand their subtle cues and communicate with them in a way that goes much deeper than words.

Some benefits of Baby Massage

• Supporting the development of parent-child relationships

Skin-to-skin contact with a baby, such as hugging, cuddling, and using a baby's swaddle, promotes parenting.

Massage does this more than anything, as it allows us to communicate lovingly with our children, to understand their needs, and to relieve any stress. For a baby, massage is a sensory, enjoyable and physical therapy.

In addition, massage is also the best medicine for parents in order to help them bond with their baby, recognize their cues, understand their baby and helping them develop confidence in their parenting skills.

• Stimulates the nervous and immune systems

Stimulation of the baby's epidermis through massage is important for physical development. It helps babies coordinate movements and speeds up the myelination of the brain and nervous system. In a word, it speeds up the connection between brain cells, where information is transmitted.

This stimulates the nervous and immune systems, also thanks to the fact that massage reduces stress hormone levels.

• Relaxation effect for baby

Baby massage is good at the production of 'happy' hormones (including endorphin, oxytocin and prolactin) and lowers levels of stress hormones (including ACTH, cortisol and norepinephrine).

When stressed, the pituitary gland produces the hormone ACTH, which stimulates the production of new proteins, useful for learning and memory, in both the liver and brain.

When stress peaks along with more stress, the body begins to shut down all sensory processes, thus impeding cognitive processes. Massage allows you to teach your baby how to relax physically when stressed.

When to massage your baby?

Daily massage brings the most beneficial from the first six to seven months of a baby's life. Gradually, you can reduce its frequency up to once a week.

There's no set rule or time of day for baby massage: you can do it in the morning, before or after a nap, before or after a bath. The most important thing is that it be done in a warm and quiet place.

How to massage baby

Put your baby down on a pillow or blanket and sit in front of them. Relax your head and shoulders and make sure you're in a comfortable position. Take a deep breath and let go of all outside thoughts as you give your full attention to your baby. It's just you and them.

Remove any jewelry you are wearing on your hand or arm and undress your child. Always explain to your infant that you are about to give a massage and ask for his or her permission.

It's understandable if your infant doesn't want to be massaged just by watching them: they may lift their arms as if defending themselves, turn away from you, kick their feet, and wave their arms and direction eyes in madness.

What should you do if your baby reacts this way? Warm their body or surroundings and place your hands gently on their skin. Even so, if they're still unsure about getting a massage, start somehow, they'll calm down soon enough.

What do you need to perform infant massage? All you need is oil, towel, blanket or pillow. Oils should be cold pressed and botanicals, such as almond oil, gentle. In winter, mustard oil retains heat and coconut oil cools in summer.

Infant massage is also very helpful to relieve minor ailments

Baby massage is also very helpful to relieve the symptoms of colic, colds and fever.

• If your child has a fever, wet your hands with warm water and cover them. The heat on the surface of their skin will evaporate the water, cooling the inside of the body.
• If they have chest tightness, perform forward and backward movements on their chest and back with menthol or eucalyptus oil or use a small glass. It helps flush mucus out of the lungs.
• If they have a stuffy nose, put a drop of warm salt water or breast milk in each nostril and massage the face, sucking out the mucus.

Massage is also helpful for intestinal gas and colic, as it stimulates the digestive system to mature and function properly. Ask an experienced medical professional to show you the correct sequence of movements to perform on your baby's belly.

Warm baths, gentle massage around the anal area and small changes in the mother's diet are also recommended.

How to celebrate Baby Massage Day

At present, there is no official evidence about the origin of this nationwide holiday; however, it is believed that this day is a great chance for all parents realize how important baby massage is. If you understand clearly them, of course, you know what to do in this day. Let spend some free times for your baby for massage. It will be an interesting experience. Do not forget to share your thought with using the hashtag #BabyMassageDay for spreading.