Infant Massage

How To Give Your Baby A Loving Infant Massage

By Diane Cuesta

A delightful baby massage is a wonderful way to bond with your newborn baby and spend quality time together. It is another beautiful way to express your love. More and more studies now show that a loving baby massage may help support a healthy immune system, improve sleeping, relieve colic and even enhance an infant's intellectual development and motor skills. Since skin is the largest organ in the body, touch is extremely important. The following preparation and useful techniques can assist you in giving your precious baby a spa experience!

How to Begin

You will need: 2 soft towels, a clean diaper, natural baby massage oil & baby shampoo

Baby your little baby! Begin the baby massage when you and your baby are in a relaxed, calm state. The best time is usually before your baby's bath, at least a half hour after the baby has eaten. Sit comfortably on the floor with the soles of your feet together and form a diamond shape with your legs. Be sure to select a place without drafts and make sure the room temperature is a warm 78 degrees. Then drape a soft towel over your lap. Undress your baby, just leaving on a clean diaper and rest your baby on the towel over your legs so your baby will feel comfortable and secure. Cradle your baby's head with your feet. Then put some baby massage oil on your clean hands and rub them together so they will be soft and warm before you start. Your baby will not be happy if he or she receives a massage from cold hands! Then using massage oil for baby, begin with long gentle strokes from your baby's head to his or her toes. If you find that your baby responds well to the massage, proceed to gently massage your baby's body section by section. If your baby does not cooperate, simply massage him or her at another time.

While you massage your baby you may want to softly talk, hum, sing and/or play healing meditation music during the massage. To further bond with your baby, give your little one eye to eye contact during the baby massage.

Baby Massage Tips

Make your strokes gentle but not ticklish.

With soft and gentle touches the baby massage flows from the head to the toes. Tenderly begin on the head and then move to the face, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, stomach and down to the legs, feet and toes.

Follow your baby's mood signals about when to stop the massage. If the baby wants to change position let him or her do so. A baby massage can comfortably last anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on his or her mood.

When you gently massage your baby's body parts, you may want to cover the areas of the baby's body that are not being massaged with a second towel to avoid baby from getting a chill. Run your fingertips lightly over the body using circular motion. Avoid massaging your infant's navel area, if the cord hasn't completely healed, avoid pressure on the spinal cord and avoid the genitalia area.

You can hold under your baby's knees and gently press the knees up toward his or her tummy. This position can help your baby to expel gas. Massage the scalp in small circles with your fingertips as if you were shampooing.

Following the massage, wash your baby's hair with a natural baby shampoo. This may require two washes to remove all the oil.

Make it a good habit to give your baby a baby massage as part of your baby's pre-bath schedule. After the massage, caress your baby and then give your baby a warm bath.

SkinCareBaby.com recommends using Baby Cakes ULTRA Bath & Massage Oil for your baby's massage. This baby skin care oil moisturizes dry skin and protects delicate baby skin with Calendula infused Soy Oil, Borage & Avocado Oils and Green Tea Extract. This baby skin care baby bath and massage oil is pH balanced for healthy baby skin care. It softens dry skin while it calms and relaxes.

ULTRA Bath & Massage Oil Active Ingredients:

Borage: one of the richest sources of gamma linolenic acid, and it also contains important vitamins and minerals. It is typically used in high-end cosmetic formulations to nourish and hydrate dry skin. Use Borage oil in facial blends for maturing skin care or in blends for damaged skin care where regeneration of new skin cells is needed.

Soy Calendula Oil: Calendula has anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties and stimulates cellular regeneration of healthy skin.

Avocado Oil: Easily absorbed by the skin and scalp and is a good source of vitamins A, D and E, amino acids and sterols. Herbalists traditionally have used avocado oil in hair and scalp care preparations. It is very soothing and calming for skin and scalp

Vitamin E: Vitamin E is a powerful anti-oxidant that helps retard cellular aging associated with free-radical damage. Protects the skin against UV-induced inflammation and maintains skin hydration. Vitamin E regulates abnormal proliferation of the superficial skin layers. (Vitamin E is derived from soy)

Green Tea: is a potent extract used primarily for fighting free radicals. Green tea extract contains potent antioxidants which are intimately involved in the prevention of cellular damage.

For more great tips about baby skin care visit our website: http://www.SkinCareBaby.com where you will also find more ideas and great award winning baby skin care products, which are wonderful for adults too! Here's to your family's good health! Diane Cuesta Owner of SkinCareBaby Consider this article as opinion only. Seek the advice of your own physician in connection with any questions or issues you have regarding your baby's health. Diane Cuesta has been uplifting the consciousness of individuals and practicing heart-centered spiritual healing since 1992. With a deep sense of compassion and commitment to Love, her mission as an author/internet business owner is to serve humanity for the highest, greatest good. It is her vision that the greatest business and financial success occurs when spiritual, humanitarian and environmental principals are practiced.