Infant massage is massage given to a young infants involving tactile and kinesthetic stroke and rubbing stimulation as a therapy to enhance their cognitive and physical development. Such contact is also found in other mammals where the mother provides tactile stimulation as part of their care through licking, grooming, and physical contact. Infant massage is widespread in traditional societies. Research finds that massage enhances neural development and body growth in rodents and humans and is particularly important for preterm infants.
Benefits
Full term infants
Full term infants receiving massage therapy show more weight, greater length, less irritability and better sleep.[1] It also reduces crying and improves an infant's ability to regulate their stress hormones.[2] Mothers with postnatal depression that massage their infants reduce their own depression and improve the quality of their social interactions with their infants.[3]
Preterm infants
Preterm newborns receiving massage in neonatal intensive-care units gain more body weight than those that do not.[4] Other benefits include increased bone mineralization, bone density, bone length, and head circumference.[5] They also show higher psycho-motor development and significantly higher Mental Development Index scores.[6] Such massage therapy seems to be more effective when it involves "moderate" pressure than "light" pressure.[7] Such infants also sleep better.[8] The body temperature of preterm infants increases when given massage compared to controls "even though the incubator portholes remained open during the 15 min massage therapy session but not for the control group over an equivalent time period".[9] This has been suggested to be due to better control by the infant's brain of its body state and its blood circulation.[9] Massage to the leg reduces pain prior to heel stick venipuncture.[10] Nondepressed mothers also show lower anxiety if they massage their preterm infants.[11] Length of stay in hospital and occurrence of late-onset sepsis is also reduced by mothers massaging their preterm infants.[12]
Mechanisms
Infants show increased levels of insulin and IGF-1 in their blood serum following massage therapy and this links to them gaining extra body weight.[13] Raised levels of IGF-1 also accelerate neural development as measured by electroencephalography activity and visual acuity in the visual cortex both in rodents and humans.[14] In the case of rodents antagonists to IGF-1 blocks these positive effects of massage.[14]
Massage decreases right frontal EEG asymmetry in one-month-old infants of depressed mothers which could act to reduce stress.[15] Enhanced growth might be due to lower energy expenditure in infants receiving massage therapy.[16]
Risks
The use of certain oils in traditional societies such as mustard oil might affect newborn skin integrity and permeability.[17] Though other oils that are linoleate-enriched such as sunflower seed oil are safe and improve skin health.[18]
History
Ayurvedic medicine in ancient India taught the use of infant massage.[19] It was also has been encouraged in China since the Qing dynasty.[20] At present it is part of traditional childcare in South Asia and elsewhere where daily massage by mothers is seen as "instilling fearlessness, hardening bone structure, enhancing movement and limb coordination, and increasing weight"[21] Such massage often used potentially unsafe mustard oil though public education is now encouraging the use of safe alternatives.[22]
See also
References
- ^ Field M, Hernandez-Reif M, Diego L, Feijo Y. Vera Y, Gil K. (1996). Massage therapy by parents improves early growth and development. Infant Behavior & Development 27: 435–442. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2004.03.004
- ^ Underdown, A; Barlow, J; Chung, V; Stewart-Brown, S; Underdown, Angela (2006). "Massage intervention for promoting mental and physical health in infants aged under six months". Cochrane database of systematic reviews (Online) (4): CD005038. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD005038.pub2. PMID 17054233.
- ^ Onozawa, K; Glover, V; Adams, D; Modi, N; Kumar, RC. (2001). "Infant massage improves mother-infant interaction for mothers with postnatal depression". J Affect Disord. 63 (1–3): 201–7. doi:10.1016/S0165-0327(00)00198-1. PMID 11246096.
- ^ Field T. (Ed.). (2004). Touch and massage in early child development. New Brunswick, NJ: Johnson and Johnson Pediatric Institute. ISBN 978-0931562303
- ^ Moyer-Mileur, L; Luetkemeier, M; Boomer, L; Chan, GM. (1995). "Effect of physical activity on bone mineralization in premature infants". J Pediatr. 127 (4): 620–5. doi:10.1016/S0022-3476(95)70127-3. PMID 7562289.
- ^ Procianoy, RS; Mendes, EW; Silveira, RC (2010). "Massage therapy improves neurodevelopment outcome at two years corrected age for very low birth weight infants". Early human development. 86 (1): 7–11. doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2009.12.001. PMC 2889164. PMID 20022717.
- ^ Field, T; Diego, MA; Hernandez-Reif, M; Deeds, O; Figuereido, B (2006). "Moderate versus light pressure massage therapy leads to greater weight gain in preterm infants". Infant behavior & development. 29 (4): 574–8. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2006.07.011. PMC 1821345. PMID 17138310.
- ^ Kelmanson, IA; Adulas, EI (2006). "Massage therapy and sleep behaviour in infants born with low birth weight". Complementary therapies in clinical practice. 12 (3): 200–5. doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2005.11.007. PMID 16835031.
- ^ a b Diego, MA; Field, T; Hernandez-Reif, M (2008). "Temperature increases in preterm infants during massage therapy" (PDF). Infant behavior & development. 31 (1): 149–52. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2007.07.002. PMC 2262938. PMID 17692385.
- ^ Jain, S; Kumar, P; McMillan, DD. (2006). "Prior leg massage decreases pain responses to heel stick in preterm babies". J Paediatr Child Health. 42 (9): 505–8. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1754.2006.00912.x. PMID 16925535.
- ^ Feijó, L; Hernandez-Reif, M; Field, T; Burns, W; Valley-Gray, S; Simco, E (2006). "Mothers' depressed mood and anxiety levels are reduced after massaging their preterm infants". Infant behavior & development. 29 (3): 476–80. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2006.02.003. PMID 17138300.
- ^ Mendes, EW; Procianoy, RS. (2008). "Massage therapy reduces hospital stay and occurrence of late-onset sepsis in very preterm neonates". J Perinatol. 28 (12): 815–20. doi:10.1038/jp.2008.108. PMID 18633421.
- ^ Field, T; Diego, M; Hernandez-Reif, M; Dieter, JN; Kumar, AM; Schanberg, S; Kuhn, C (2008). "Insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 increased in preterm neonates following massage therapy" (PDF). Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP. 29 (6): 463–6. doi:10.1097/DBP.0b013e3181856d3b. PMC 2663361. PMID 18714203.
- ^ a b Guzzetta, Andrea; Baldini, S; Bancale, A; Baroncelli, L; Ciucci, F; Ghirri, P; Putignano, E; Sale, A; Viegi, A (05/06/2009). "Massage Accelerates Brain Development and the Maturation of Visual Function". Journal of Neuroscience. 29 (18): 6042. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5548-08.2009. PMID 19420271.
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(help) - ^ Jones NA, Field T, Davalos M. (1998). Massage therapy attenuates right frontal EEG asymmetry in one-month-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 21: 527-530 doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(98)90025-X
- ^ Lahat, Sharon; Mimouni, FB; Ashbel, G; Dollberg, S (08/01/2007). "Energy Expenditure in Growing Preterm Infants Receiving Massage Therapy". Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 26 (4): 356. PMID 17906188.
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(help) - ^ Darmstadt, GL; Mao-Qiang, M; Chi, E; Saha, SK; Ziboh, VA; Black, RE; Santosham, M; Elias, PM. (2002). "Impact of topical oils on the skin barrier: possible implications for neonatal health in developing countries". Acta Paediatr. 91 (5): 546–54. doi:10.1080/080352502753711678. PMID 12113324.
- ^ Darmstadt, GL; Badrawi, N; Law, PA; Ahmed, S; Bashir, M; Iskander, I; Al Said, D; El Kholy, A; Husein, MH (2004). "Topically applied sunflower seed oil prevents invasive bacterial infections in preterm infants in Egypt: a randomized, controlled clinical trial". The Pediatric infectious disease journal. 23 (8): 719–25. PMID 15295221.
- ^ Johari H. (1996). Ayurvedic Massage: Traditional Indian Techniques for Balancing Body and Mind. Inner Traditions Bear and Company. ISBN 978-0892814893
- ^ Furth C. (1987). Concepts of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Infancy in Ch'ing Dynasty China. Journal of Asian Studies, 46:7-35. JSTOR 2056664
- ^ Reissland, N; Burghart, R (1987). "The role of massage in south Asia: child health and development". Social science & medicine (1982). 25 (3): 231–9. PMID 3629298.
- ^ Mullany, LC; Darmstadt, GL; Khatry, SK; Tielsch, JM (2005). "Traditional massage of newborns in Nepal: implications for trials of improved practice" (PDF). Journal of tropical pediatrics. 51 (2): 82–6. doi:10.1093/tropej/fmh083. PMC 1317296. PMID 15677372.
External links
- Find a local class (in the UK)
- International Association of Infant Massage
- International Association of Infant Massage UK
- Guild of Infant and Child Massage
- The Touch Research Institute
- BBC: Baby Massage -- provides instructions
- About.com: How to Massage a Baby includes video
- Baby Massage Techniques (YouTube)
- Baby Massage (YouTube)
- Infant Massage to Stop a Crying Baby (YouTube)