A Parent’s Touch: Priceless

Healthy touch is an important need for both adults and babies and essential to our well-being as humans. Touch plays a major role in an infant’s development and growth along with creating a sense of security and safety in this world. The parent-infant interaction is the most important foundation upon which a child learns about the self, and about trust and respect. It is this first relationship that influences the way relationships are perceived. Infant massage is a natural way that parents can learn about parenting and that infants can learn about being loved and honored.

“Touching is the first communication a baby receives,” says Frederick Leboyer, author of Loving Hands: The Traditional Art of Baby Massage. “The first language of a baby’s development is through the skin.” The sense of touch, is the first of the five senses developed in utero, but the vagus nerve, which conveys “sensory” information to our brain, isn’t fully developed at the time of birth. Touch helps stimulate nerve growth, and studies involving infant massage have shown that infants that receive regular massage develop this nerve faster and fuller than infants that just received normal touch, like diaper changes and bathing. Research has shown there can also be other benefits, including improved circulation; enhanced immune system function; and help with congestion, gas and colic. It can also promote relaxation, which helps calm babies, reduce crying and promote better sleep. Touch therapy can also help “at-risk” babies. For example, Dr. Tiffany Fields, at the University of Miami, uses infant massage to boost the health of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit; the Deaf and Blind Foundation uses it to help calm and educate the babies in its care; and many orthopedists and physical therapists, working with neurologically challenged babies, use it to help stimulate nerve growth. Touch is like food, and nurturing touch is just as important as healthy food in order to help babies grow.

The parent/caregiver is the primary source of interaction in the infant’s life, and infant massage nurtures the most important relationship the child will ever have: the parent-infant relationship. So it is not the infant massage instructor/massage therapist that massages the infant, it is the parent. This nurturing touch enriches physiological, social-emotional, and mind/body/spirit connections for the infant as well as for the parent. When a parent engages an infant in a massage, he/she begins to watch and listen to the infant with his/her eyes, ears and heart. This facilitates parenting skills, bonding and the parent’s ability to read the baby’s cues. Parents also learn techniques to help comfort, calm and soothe their babies, which helps them feel more comfortable and confident in their ability to care for them. Infant massage is one of the most natural and pleasant methods of providing important early nurturing, and it is an amazing tool for helping parents become closer to their babies.

Vimala McClure, a founder of the International Association of Infant Massage, states: “One of the biggest lessons that I can teach is that the parent already has the skills and ‘know how’ to help the baby grow and comfort him or her when he or she is in need of touch. Sometimes one just needs some positive encouragement and a little direction to take control over the stressful situation.” McClure goes on to say, “Every moment is a learning experience, and with a tool like infant massage, it allows us, as parents and caregivers, to make the experience an enjoyable, comfortable and loving event.” This is what an educated, caring infant massage instructor strives to do when teaching infant massage to parents/caregivers—help parenting be a more enjoyable, loving event.

For more information about the topic of touch, call the Balance Institute at 803-796-4807 or visit TheBalanceInstitute.com