Your Guide to Baby Massage

Baby massage is a very important issue in your baby’s development. First of all, it strengthens the bond between mother and baby, and of course, between father and baby… Your baby calms down with every gentle touch; He/she feels loved and spiritually nourished. This strengthens the trust and communication between you. Moreover, by finding a solution to the problems in his small body, he relaxes and falls into a much better quality sleep. Therefore, experts argue that baby massage is very effective in healthy growth.

So how is baby massage done? What should be considered while doing it? What is the most accurate technique? If you’re not sure where to start, read on. In this guide, you can find everything you wonder about baby massage, from its benefits to its techniques.

What Does Baby Massage Do?

Baby massage offers many benefits for your baby’s health:

• First of all, it accelerates blood circulation and breathing.
• According to the International Infant Massage Association (IAIM), it helps stimulate the circulatory and digestive systems. Therefore, it is recommended to give regular relaxing massages to babies who are faced with problems such as gas, cramps and constipation, especially colic babies.
• Baby massage helps your baby relax and minimizes crying crises.
• Your baby gains flexibility and strength thanks to the small massages you give him/her.

• It promotes growth in preterm babies.
• It also plays an important role in relieving muscle tension, growing pains and teething discomfort.
• Baby massage not only contributes to the physical development of your baby, but also can be effective in preventing posture disorders that may occur in the future.
• A massage done with the right technique can be good for your baby’s skin texture.

When Should Baby Massage Be Done?

You can start baby massage as soon as your baby is born. However, in order not to do anything wrong at this point, you should definitely talk to your doctor and get their opinions and suggestions on the subject.

Massage plays a very effective role in creating your baby’s sleep routine. Therefore, by giving your baby a massage before going to sleep at night, you can ensure that your baby has a much better sleep pattern. When you repeat this regularly, your baby will automatically receive the “sleep” message and will have a much more regular sleep pattern. Remember, this is as important to you as it is to him! Thus, you can spare more time for yourself or have a much healthier sleep pattern.

When Not to Do Baby Massage?

Although baby massage plays an important role in the development of your baby, it can cause undesirable results in some cases. For this reason, it is best to follow the special situations that your baby is in and to confirm with your doctor. However, here are some examples of times when you should not massage your baby:

• If your baby has just been fed,
• If your baby has been vaccinated,
• If your baby has an infection-related condition,
• If your hands are cold, tense, or injured,
• If the environment you are in is cold or in direct sunlight.

On the other hand, try to follow your baby’s expressions and mood while massaging. Your baby should appear calm, alert, and contented when you touch him. If you receive a message from her behavior that makes her uncomfortable, you should not continue the massage.

So how can you tell if your baby is satisfied with the massage? Of course, this issue varies from baby to baby. But according to the Mayo Clinic, if your baby is turning their head away from you or stiffening their arms instead of letting go, it may not be the right time for a massage.

How Often Is Baby Massage Performed?

How often you massage your baby depends on the communication you have with your baby or your baby’s reactions. If you wish, you can keep a routine once a day or every other day if you wish. You can even repeat it during the day by following your baby’s needs. The decision is entirely up to you and your baby.

Let’s talk about how long the baby massage should be done… Although this also varies according to your baby’s reaction, you can keep the newborn baby massage time to 10 minutes on average.

What Is Used While Performing Baby Massage?

Three important things are needed when giving a baby massage: A comfortable and suitable environment in terms of air temperature, pleasant and relaxing music and quality baby oil… If you provide all these and massage with the right movements, it is not possible for your baby to relax and relax. Unless, of course, there is a serious illness or problem…

How to Do Baby Massage Step by Step

Now let’s come to the subject that all parents are curious about: Baby massage techniques. At this point, it is possible to talk about a few major techniques. However, if you want to move forward in a more controlled manner, you can get advice and opinions from your doctor on the subject and attend baby massage training sessions.

1. Skin to Skin Massage Technique

In the skin-to-skin technique, also known as kangaroo, the naked skin of the baby and the bare skin of the mother and father touch each other. For this technique, lay your baby on your chest and gradually start stroking their legs and back. Then you can move into the arms and make your baby relax even more.

2. Baby Gas Relief Massage

The same question on everyone’s mind when it comes to newborn baby massage: How is baby gassing massage done? In this technique, which is a very important massage especially for colic babies, the following steps can be followed; You can get your baby’s intestines moving.

• First, warm your palms and place them on your baby’s tummy.
• With gentle pressure, lower your hand from the abdomen to the groin. Repeat the same process with your other hand.
• After performing this process several times in a row, hold your baby’s feet and pull his knees towards his tummy. Wait like this for about 15 seconds.

• Then continue the clockwise massage with your hand on your baby’s tummy.
• Then pull your baby’s knees towards their tummy again and hold for another 15 seconds.

There are also different methods that you can apply to remove gas in babies. The most well-known and perhaps the most effective one is to lay your baby on your shoulder and caress his back with certain rhythmic movements.

3. Baby Back Massage

You can apply back massage not only to relieve your baby’s gas, but also to relax him in different situations. At this point, it is possible to mention a few points that you can pay attention to:

• Lay your baby on your shoulder if you wish, or on a bed face down if you wish.
• With one hand, stroke your baby’s neck starting from the nape of her neck.
• If you wish, you can stimulate your baby’s body by making rhythmic movements with the help of your fingers. At this point, the most preferred move is to make gentle strokes on your baby’s back with your fingertips.
• If you want to relax your baby a little more, you can descend from the back to the legs.

4. Baby Foot and Leg Massage

Foot and leg massages are among the massage techniques that are good for your baby and support his fine motor development. When it comes to foot massage, you have to start with your baby’s wrists. First, you should loosen your wrists with circular movements, and then do the same on your fingers. Then, starting from your baby’s heel, you can move forward with rhythmic movements towards his fingers, allowing your baby to relax.

When it comes to leg massage, the movement you need to do is quite simple, but so relaxing: Grab your baby’s feet, bend his knee, and push it straight towards his stomach. Keep pushing and pulling your baby’s legs towards their tummy, applying very small doses of pressure. This move can also cure your baby’s gas problems.

Although baby massage plays a very important role in your baby’s development and communication with him, you should definitely confirm all these suggestions and actions with your doctor in order not to cause undesirable results.