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Infant massage is a type of complementary and alternative treatment that uses
Technique traditionnelle à l'africaine de bain de bébé au village Gogotinkpon au Bénin1.jpg
Technique traditionnelle à l'africaine de bain de bébé au village Gogotinkpon au Bénin (sport du bébé).jpg
Technique traditionnelle à l'africaine de bain de bébé au Bénin (rituel du modelage des fesses).jpg
Technique traditionnelle à l'africaine à de bain de bébé au Bénin (Sculptage du corps d’un bébé).jpg
Technique traditionnelle à l'africaine de bain de bébé au Bénin.jpg
Technique traditionnelle à l'africaine à de bain de bébé Gogotinkpon au Bénin (massage des orteils du bébé).jpg
Technique traditionnelle à l'africaine de bain de bébé au Bénin (massage des orteils du bébé).jpg
Infant massage is a type of complementary and alternative treatment that uses massage therapy
Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In Eu ...
for babies. Evidence is insufficient to support its use in either full term or preterm babies to achieve physical growth.
History
Ayurvedic medicine
Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repor ...
in ancient India
According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by ...
taught the use of infant massage. It was also has been encouraged in China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
during the Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
. At present it is part of traditional childcare in South Asia and elsewhere where daily massage by mothers is seen as "instilling fearlessness, hardening bone structure, enhancing movement and limb coordination, and increasing weight". Other areas where infant massage is regularly used are African countries and areas in the former Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. In Western culture, infant massage has been increasingly used in neonatal intensive care unit
A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit (ICU) specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. Neonatal refers to the first 28 days of life. Neonatal care, as ...
s for pre-term infants who are in stressful environments and have limited tactile stimulation.
Research
A 2013Cochrane review
Cochrane (previously known as the Cochrane Collaboration) is a British international charitable organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health profess ...
of massage therapy for babies less than 6 months of age who were born at term found that the evidence was insufficient to support its use. A 2004 Cochrane review looking at massage therapy for pre-term and low birth weight was insufficient to justify its use.
Proposed mechanisms
Various mechanisms have been proposed as to suggest how massage therapy might benefit infants. For pre-term infants, it has been suggested that any weight gain may be due to improved metabolic efficiency or by reducing the adverse reaction of stress through decreasing stress behavior or stress hormones. Other possible mechanisms include increasedvagal
The vagus nerve, also known as the tenth cranial nerve, cranial nerve X, or simply CN X, is a cranial nerve that interfaces with the parasympathetic control of the heart, lungs, and digestive tract. It comprises two nerves—the left and right ...
activity and secretion of insulin
Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolis ...
and gastrin
Gastrin is a peptide hormone that stimulates secretion of gastric acid (HCl) by the parietal cells of the stomach and aids in gastric motility. It is released by G cells in the pyloric antrum of the stomach, duodenum, and the pancreas.
Gastr ...
as well as improved parent-infant relationships.
Safety
Reviews of the literature have found no significant risks for adverse events with massage theory with either full term or pre-term infants. One study found that the use of certain oils in traditional societies such asmustard oil
Mustard oil can mean either the pressed oil used for cooking, or a pungent essential oil also known as volatile oil of mustard. The essential oil results from grinding mustard seed, mixing the grounds with water, and extracting the resulting vola ...
or olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...
might adversely affect pre-term newborn skin
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different d ...
barrier function, while using other oils that are linoleate-enriched such as sunflower seed oil
Sunflower oil is the non-volatile oil pressed from the seeds of the sunflower (''Helianthus annuus''). Sunflower oil is commonly used in food as a frying oil, and in cosmetic formulations as an emollient.
Sunflower oil is primarily composed ...
may improve the integrity and permeability of the skin.
See also
*Babywearing
Babywearing is the practice of wearing or carrying a baby in a sling or in another form of carrier. Babywearing has been practiced for centuries around the world. Babywearing is a form of baby transport which can be used for as long as mutually ...
*Haptic communication
Haptic communication is a branch of nonverbal communication that refers to the ways in which people and animals communicate and interact via the sense of touch. Touch is the most sophisticated and intimate of the five senses. Touch or haptics, f ...
*Kangaroo care
Kangaroo care also called skin-to-skin contact (SSC), is a technique of newborn care where babies are kept chest-to-chest and skin-to-skin with a parent, typically their mother (occasionally their father).
Kangaroo care, named for the similarity ...
* Pediatric massage
* Swaddling
References
{{reflist Babycare Pediatrics Massage therapy