When is the best time to massage a newborn baby?

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Newborn massage is a way to enjoy time with your baby and it also helps parents bond with their baby. Before babies can understand language, they often communicate and perceive care through touch, as babies feel more secure when their parents will hold, hug, or stroke them. Accordingly, infant massage at home is part of this natural bond formation.

1. What is infant massage?

Newborn baby massage is the gentle and rhythmic stroking of the body with your hands. At the same time, parents can also exercise the ankle, wrist and finger joints for the baby. While performing a newborn baby massage, parents can talk, hum or sing to the baby to create a sense of calm and reassurance for the baby.
Not too strange, newborn baby massage has been done for a long time with the original purpose of supporting the development of premature babies in the intensive care departments. Indeed, studies show that infants in the intensive care unit who receive massage spend less time in the incubator, score slightly better on developmental tests, and have fewer complications. born prematurely than babies who did not receive massage.
Nowadays, at-home newborn baby massage has become extremely popular in everyday baby care, such as feeding, lulling and cleaning. With massage, a newborn baby can raise awareness of the mother's needs and support the early mother-child relationship. Moreover, the role of infant massage also helps improve feelings of well-being if the mother suffers from postpartum depression or other mental health problems.
Thus, the benefits of performing newborn baby massage at home can be summarized as follows:
Helps parents become more confident in taking care of their baby and better recognizing their needs Improve the Positive interactions with your newborn A simple yet powerful way for family members and caregivers to bond with your baby Improve your baby's sleep

2. When is the best time to massage a newborn baby?

There are absolutely no specific guidelines for when to massage a newborn baby. However, some experts recommend that parents wait 10 days to two weeks before starting to massage their newborn with baby oil or lotion.
Also, while babies thrive on loving touch and skin-to-skin contact, some babies may not be ready to enjoy oil massage in the first few days of life. In many families, it is a tradition to give a newborn baby massage at home every day from the moment you bring your baby home. However, a newborn's skin barrier is still not fully developed, which makes the baby's skin prone to dryness or reaction to substances applied to the skin during massage.
Therefore, the time to massage a newborn baby is still to wait a few days. This also allows time for your baby's umbilical cord to dry and fall off, which usually takes 5 to 15 days. Any oily substance left on the belly button after massaging a newborn baby at home can increase your baby's risk of umbilical cord infection. It is best to wait until the umbilical cord falls off before performing the entire body massage exercise for the baby.
If your baby is born prematurely, follow your doctor's advice to massage your newborn as a daily routine. In case you want to use oils, ask your pediatrician if your child's skin is ready for this and which ones to use.

3. How to massage a newborn baby at home?

3.1 Starting to do the massage

Researchers are finding that massage can promote better sleep, reduce colic, and may even boost an infant's immune system, motor skills, and intellectual development. Here are some tips and techniques to help parents get started with infant massage:
Start when your baby is quiet but awake, not right after a feed or when he's sleepy. Try warm-ups by gently rubbing your baby's skin from head to toe. In case the baby is stiff, fussy or irritable, move on to another body part or simply end the day's massage. If your baby cooperates well, start gently massaging each part of the body.

3.2 Performing the abdominal area

Close your fingers so that the edge of your little finger can move like a paddle on your baby's belly. Starting at the sides of the ribs, swipe down with one hand, then use the other hand for the other side. Use your fingertips to massage your belly in a clockwise circular motion.
Make "I Love U" stroke: Mark the letter I from top to left of baby. Then draw an inverted L by swiping along the belly along the base of the ribs from right to left and down. Finally, an inverted U, stroke from the lower right of the baby, up and around the navel and then down the left. Walk your fingers around the baby's navel in a clockwise direction.
Hold your baby's knees and feet together and gently press the knee toward the baby's belly. Rotate the child's hips a few times to the right. (This usually helps expel intestinal gas.) Place your hand on your stomach horizontally and swing it from side to side a few times. Note: Avoid massaging the abdomen if the wound at the base of the umbilical cord has not completely healed.

3.3 Perform at head and face

Cradle the baby's head with both hands, massaging the scalp with your fingertips as if washing your baby's hair. (Avoid touching the fontanelle, the soft spot on top of a child's head.)
Massage the ear between the thumb and index finger. Draw a heart shape on your baby's face, bringing your hands together at the chin. Place your thumb between your baby's eyebrows and swipe outwards. Gently stroke with your thumb outwards on your baby's closed eyelids and from the bridge of the nose to the outside of the cheek. Use your fingertips to massage your jaw in small circles.

3.4 Performed at the chest

Place both hands on your baby's chest and stroke from the breastbone to the shoulder. Starting at the breastbone, draw a heart shape, bringing both hands up to shoulder level, then lower and back together. Swipe diagonally from one baby's hip, in a criss-cross pattern, up over the opposite shoulder and back down to your baby's hip

3.5 Performed at the arm

Holding your baby's wrist with one hand, relax your baby's upper arm by gently touching it. Hold your baby's wrist with one hand and hold the other hand in a C-shape around your baby's upper arm, stroking from shoulder to wrist. Grasp the baby's arm with each hand, one just above the other, stroking from shoulder to wrist with both hands rotating in opposite directions.
Massaging the palm, move the thumb over the thumb from the heel of the hand to the fingers of the baby. Swipe down the top of your hand from your wrist to your fingertips. Gently squeeze and pull each finger. Massage your wrists by moving your fingers in small circles.

3.6 Performed at the back

Place the baby on his or her stomach horizontally in front of or between the mother's outstretched legs. Place both hands on your baby's back, moving each hand back and forth (keeping them in opposite directions) from his neck to his bottom.
Hold the baby's bottom with one hand and massage the baby's back by stroking the bottom of the neck with the other hand. Use your fingertips to massage in small circles down one side of your baby's spine and up the other. Avoid pressing directly on the child's spine. Massage your shoulders in small circular motions. Massage the buttocks in large circular motions. Grasp her fingers like a rake and stroke down her back.

3.7 Execution at pin

Lift one leg and relax by tapping on the upper thigh, holding the ankle with one hand and holding the other hand in a C shape, thumbs down, around your baby's upper thigh. Swipe from thigh to foot. Two hands grasp the leg at the thigh, put it on the other leg, stroke from the hip to the foot, the hands rotate in opposite directions. Use thumb movements to massage from heel to toe. Swipe the top of your foot, gently squeezing and pulling each toe. Massage around the eyes using small circles. Roll your baby's feet between your hands.

4. Notes when doing massage for babies

Perform gentle massages, massages and strokes on the baby's skin, from shallow to deep but firm and not tickling. Build a newborn baby massage schedule at home and stick to it.
Monitor the baby's response cues to the massage. The whole process of massaging a newborn baby at home can last 10 minutes or 30 minutes, depending on your baby's mood.
In short, through at-home newborn baby massage, parents can increase awareness of how their baby communicates and understand their baby's needs during the first few months of life. The time to massage a newborn baby can depend on the baby's case, whenever parents feel that the baby is ready. It is possible that the first newborn baby massages usually take place in a short time, then will last longer, from which this period of time creates relaxation conditions for both mother and baby, bringing great benefits. in helping babies to develop comprehensively continuously every day.

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Reference source: babycenter.in - whattoexpect.com - johnsonsbaby.in