Guide To Massaging New Born Babies

Guide To Massaging New Born Babies
Kevin Pederson

Newborns simply love to be touched and cuddled. The skin to skin
touch helps you and your baby bond, comforts your baby when she
is upset or uneasy with gas or colic problems. Hence, touch is a
critical part of growth and development.

The massage strokes used on adults are completely different from
the strokes to be used on newborns. You can adapt the adult
strokes to massage your child. Just make sure that your strokes
are lighter on them. The younger they are, more delicate and
smaller will be the strokes be.

It is ideal that you take your child either on your lap or lay
him on any kind of elevated soft surface such as few thick towels
put together. Be very gentle while massaging. If your child cries
or does not enjoy it, stop massaging till it feels comfortable
about the whole thing.

Massage steps for the front of the body - Lay the child on the
back. Start by stroking gently the face, move to the middle of
the forehead and temples - Stroke the cheeks from nose to ears
and back moving down to the chin. Gently stroke the area around
the eyes. - Stroke the front of the body along the arms. Make
clockwise circles around the navel with both hands. Do gentle
wringing action across the abdomen and up the body. - Take one
arm at a time, start stroking from shoulder to hand to fingers.
Massage the hand, squeeze and rotate each of the fingers in turn.
Do the same for other arm. - Take one leg at time. Do a gentle
wring or squeeze up the leg and stroke down the leg. Do the same
for other arm.

Massage steps for the back of the body - Lay the child stomach
down. Stoke up and over the back and along the arms. - Do a
gentle kneading on the child's shoulder - Do a gentle wringing
stroke all over the body. Massage the rear side with gentle
kneading or pinching strokes. - Slide smoothly down the spine
alternating with both the hands. Start from the base of the neck
and move to working down to the base of spine. - Gently stroke
the legs, bending the knee up and working all the way to the
foot. - Hold the anklebone between your fingertips and move both
the hands in circular motion. - Squeeze the heal with one hand
and use the thumb of your other hand to massage the sole of the
foot. - Massage the toes by gentle squeezing, rotating and
pulling it in turns. Hold the foot firmly between your hands for
few seconds. Repeat the same for massaging the backside of other
leg.

Lastly, turn the baby over and give it a final massage in two
strokes. Start from one foot up the leg, across the lower abdomen
and move down the other leg. Do light strokes from the top of
head right down to the feet.

To massage the baby having gas or digestive problems, use the "I
Love You" technique.

- Lay the baby on the back and undress it completely or just
leave the diaper on. - Use two or three fingers of your right
hand to trace the alphabet "I" on the right side of the abdomen
with gentle, yet firm movements. - Next do a gentle stroke from
left to right across the baby's abdomen and then do a small
downward stroke along the right side of his stomach forming
upside down "L" alphabet. - Last, stroke up from the left side of
your baby's hipbone moving towards the left side of the abdomen,
across the baby�s body from left to right horizontally along the
stomach and finally finish by stroking down the right side in the
same manner, forming the "U" alphabet in upside down direction.

Kevin Pederson is the Webmaster for
http://www.massagehealththerapy.com . Massage therapy is a
combination of science and art provides a relaxing experience by
artistic hand strokes on the body to rejuvenate the mind and body
and eliminate stress scientifically.