We all want our children to be the smartest, healthiest, and most socially adept they can be. And there is so much we can do! But one of the most important ways we can nurture our child’s minds and bodies is through touch!
Believe it or not loving and compassionate touch such a coddling and rocking your infant will help hormone levels, dendrites in the brain develop, it will improve immune function, weight gain, and food absorption, to name just a few. In toddlers and youths, it will help brain function resulting in faster processing of information, it shows that they are more adept at sports, stronger, they heal faster, and that children who are touched, hugged, and carried by their parents are more socially adept and can handle stressful situations better.
So.. as a massage therapist who has been dealing with this for over 14 years, I can tell you I’ve seen my share of what massage – therapeutic touch in general – can do!
Ways to implement beneficial touch for your child on a daily basis are as simple as playing with their hair, holding them in a rocking chair or holding them and rocking them with your arms, rubbing lotion on their backs and arms and legs, even learning a few massage techniques and talking to them about them importance of compassionate touch! (in my opinion this last one is quite important 😀 )
When it comes to post partum and even pre-natal depression, massage on mothers has shown to be highly effective. In fact, studies that deal with physical trauma and emotional trauma that incorporate massage – have always shown that massage has a beneficial role. To quote Dr Tiffany Fields “Just adding massage makes such an incredible difference… In everything we’ve done, massage is significantly effective. There’s not a single condition we’ve looked at—including cancer—that hasn’t responded positively to massage.”
If you have any furthers questions about how to incorporate touch in to your daily life, please contact me at [email protected] or call 551-689-0763
SOME AWESOME LINKS :
http://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/infantmassage.html
http://www.massagemag.com/News/2006/January/125/Tiffany.php
http://www.parents.com/baby/care/newborn/baby-massage/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/76721-child-development-infant-massage/
