|| Printer-Friendly Format ||   E-mail to a Friend

Massaging Infants Growing Trend
Reported by JoAnne Purtan
Web Produced by Christiana Ciolac

	Caiden gets his daily dose of massage daily.

Infant massage is not only fun, but makes babies healthier and happier. JoAnne Purtan shows you why more and more parents are learning the art of infant massage.

In the afternoon, it's time for Caiden's daily dose of loving strokes.

"You're always caring for his basic needs, feeding him, changing his diaper, this is just a special time to take care of him and let him know that I love him," said Brenda Hughey, Caiden's mom.

Caiden was only three-weeks-old when his mom and dad began massaging him.

"I had heard all the health benefits for the baby, but I also knew it would be a good opportunity for us to bond with the baby and nurture him," Brenda said.

They came to Troy Beaumont Hospital to learn all about infant massage and soon realized there's a lot more to this than they thought.

"How you massage away from the heart when you start and then massage back to the heart, or when you do the massage of the stomach, going in a clockwise direction because that's the way his digestive system goes," said Mike Hughey.

"It's a combination of Indian, Swedish and for the feet we use Chinese reflexology," said Massage Instructor Pallavi Pate. "They say there are about 72,000 nerve endings at the bottom of each foot, so when we do the massage, we're stimulating all of those."

A study of premature babies found those who were massaged everyday gained more weight and had shorter hospital stays than those who weren't. It's also been found to strengthen a baby's immune system, increase circulation, and help with digestion.

Not all babies love every minute of class time, but parents find when they get them home, it's a different story.

"Initially I think he didn't know quite what we were doing, but he's gotten used to it, and really comfortable with it, and he really enjoys it. Sometimes after his massage, he's very active, but today he's just very quiet and wants to go to sleep."

For more information on the infant massage classes, call Beaumont Hospital at 800-633-7377. Most hospitals offer these classes and there are also many books on the topic you can find at your library or bookstore.

|| Printer-Friendly Format ||   E-mail to a Friend
|| More Health News ||   Discussion Groups