Health Tip for March
March 1, 2010
March is the month for mothering. As an Infant Massage Instructor, I am continually inspired by the power of nurturing touch to create a lifetime bond of intimacy, communication and trust between parents and children. As many of you already know, massage in infancy eases colic, improves sleep, aids digestion and circulation, boosts immunity and enhances overall development. This is as true for babies as it is for older children and adults. For this reason, it is beneficial to adapt techniques learned for massaging infants as they develop into toddlers, pre-schoolers, and beyond.
Children are primarily kinesthetic learners until the age of 12. A study conducted by the Touch Research Institute in Miami shows that when pre-schoolers were given 15 minutes of massage before taking the same aptitude tests as a group of students who weren’t massaged, the pre-schoolers who received massage scored significantly higher on all tests. Studies also show that children absorb 15% of verbal praise, but 85% of praise that is given in conjunction with touch. Thus nurturing touch is a wonderful way to enhance cognitive development and help children build self-esteem in early life.
Adopting some form of nurturing touch or massage throughout a child’s development is beneficial to the well-being of parents as well. When giving a massage, both the giver and receiver release the “feel-good” hormone oxytocin, which reduces blood pressure, inhibits the production of stress hormones and creates a feeling of calm and relaxation. A daily 15-20 minute ritual of giving a massage to one’s child can help to reduce stress levels for parents at home and alleviate the afternoon or evening “fussiness” children often experience, allowing for a more harmonic environment in general.
Massage can be taught to children in conjunction with imagination games: “making a pizza” in conjunction with strokes on the tummy to soothe tummy ache, or “making a garden” on the child’s back to engage their imagination and provide comforting strokes to calm before bedtime. Parents can teach children massage strokes which they can then apply to younger siblings to create a strong bond between children and ease sibling rivalry. Likewise, you might soon find children offering to give Mum and Dad massages which will allow you to reap the benefits of positive touch in return from your children.
Massage at home creates an atmosphere of nurturing that can extend to all members of a family to create lasting bonds and a lifetime of health and well-being.
