The gift of touch - Baby Massage experience, hints and tips.

Anna Martin CIMI. CThA. of Big You, Little You tells us her experience both as a Mum and an infant massage instructor, where Nappymats have become a very useful addition to her "toolkit"

"I was already a qualified massage therapist when my daughter was born, I didn’t need convincing of the benefits of baby massage. If you’ve experienced a good massage yourself you’ll probably feel the same; afterwards you can feel the effect of the massage.

From one week old my little girl, Sophia, enjoyed at least one daily massage. To begin with I adapted the strokes I’d learnt in my training to be soft enough and gentle enough for a tiny baby. Next I looked at baby massage books for ideas. Sophia’s response to massage was so fantastic it encouraged me to go on to train as a ‘Certified Infant Massage Instructor.’ I did my training with the International Association of Infant Massage who have CIMI’s all over the country. (www.iaim.org.uk)

Since I qualified I’ve taught baby massage courses for new parents and babies, nearly all of them have loved it just as much as Sophia and I did. If you can find a course to attend its definitely worth it – lots of the mums who come to a course together keep in touch and meet up even after the course ends so it’s a great way to make new friends for you and your baby.

I only discovered Nappymats after I started teaching so Sophia had to make do with a muslin cloth to lie on. Now though I give one to every baby that comes on a course. Parents take the Nappymats home with them in between the weekly sessions to be used when they practice the massage. If babies have sensitive skin they can be washed in their own washing powder which some parents prefer. For me, the main benefit is that parents are much more willing to ‘risk’ nappy free time in the massage sessions, I’ve always suggested it at the start of the course but very few parents were comfortable to remove the nappy. It seems to be harder in a full room with carpets that aren’t yours than in your own home. Since they started getting their own Nappymats about half the parents in each group leave nappies off for the whole massage, and most use them at home too.

If you can’t or don’t want to attend a course there’s no reason you can’t massage your baby at home anyway.

My tips for massage are:

Relax yourself first; if you’re tense your baby will probably pick up on it so choose a time when you aren’t rushed and take a minute for yourself to have a nice drink and a bit of a stretch first

Keep an eye out for ‘hidden’ distractions; you might not notice the overhead light but if its shining down on your baby its can take their attention away from you and the massage. Keeping the room quiet and dimly lit can help to create a calm and relaxing environment for you and your baby.

Make sure the room is warm enough for your baby to be comfortable when undressed, especially if you have a newborn…

…and get your baby undressed before you’re ready to start the massage, giving them a few minutes to get used to being naked means they don’t associate the massage with the less pleasant experience of having their clothes removed

Using a plain unscented vegetable oil like grapeseed or sunflower oil is not only less expensive for you but is more easily absorbed through your babies skin and because its recognised as a ‘food’ by the body is more easily broken down too.

Make sure to warm the oil on your hands first! If you get into the habit of showing your baby the oil and asking them if they’d like a massage its surprising how quickly they learn ways of telling you if they do.

Listen to, and watch your baby, and you’ll soon learn when and how they like to be massaged. Despite being so small most babies prefer to be handled firmly – if the strokes are too light they can be tickly instead of pleasurable.

Work up the body, starting with the legs and feet to get your baby used to being massaged. Use clockwise strokes on the tummy to help digestion, moving onto the arms, up to the face and then turning the baby over to do their back.

Get yourself a book with good pictures if you aren’t confident about using your own basic stokes or would like to learn more once you’ve started; books that use a lot of words to describe the strokes are much harder to follow while you’re massaging."