All babies who are massaged regularly are healthier for it.
Massaging is healing and improves circulation, which means better nourishment for your baby’s body and brain. It is also a perfect way to make your child feel loved, pampered and cared for.
Massage also has other advantages:
• Babies who are massaged regularly develop well and the milestones that are usually used to measure this development (crawling, sitting, etc.) tend to appear slightly earlier than predicted in childcare books.
• Babies have fewer colds and coughs, as massaging stimulates their immune system.
• They also sleep much better during the day and certainly at night.
There is no special technique to massaging your baby, but here’s how the dais, or midwives, would go about it in a traditional Indian home:
They would begin to massage the baby once it was five days old. They would massage the neck, back, arms and legs with a little oil, toning up the muscles. In winter they would use a ‘warming’ mustard oil diluted with sesame, and during the summer a lighter coconut oil.
After six months, they would gently include the head, ears and jaw. The baby would then be put in the sun for up to half an hour.