Tips on How Pediatric Massage Can Benefit Your Toddler or Newborn
Touch is a sense that is one of the first to develop in humans, and probably all forms of life. It is said that touch can convey more than a thousand words, and children are known to thrive with the right amount of physical contact.
For the health care professional inspired to practice pediatric massage therapy, there are many considerations to prepare for providing developmentally appropriate touch therapy.
Whether your baby is a newborn or several months old, massage can bring immediate and lasting results. You can learn techniques to massage your infant by a RMT or they can be performed on your infant by the therapist themselves, depending on your babies health needs.
Massage can help:
1. Your baby/child sleep deeper and more soundly.
2. Promote relaxation and help babies self-regulate and calm.
3. Enhance neurological development.
4. Relieve the discomforts of gas, teething, colic and congestion.
5. Stimulate all of the physiological systems. Massage sparks the neurons in their brains to grow and branch out to encompass other neurons.
Obtaining informed consent and permission prior to beginning a massage session establishes respect and an understanding of the benefits of healthy touch. With children, this may require input from a parent/guardian or other healthcare provider responsible for their medical care.
