Infant Massage: The I Love You Touch
Showing love and creating calm for your child can come naturally and seem like it’s in overabundance when you have a new baby!
It’s common to feel as if your baby isn’t responding to the comfort and safety you’re displaying for them.
Remember our post about oxytocin? That hormone that creates feelings of love, safety and security and helps create greater calm in the labor process?
Guess what - your baby can benefit from an oxytocin surge as well!
Infant massage is a wonderful way to use touch to help calm a baby who is colicky, cranky, needing sleep, or to simply use another language to communicate your love to your infant.
We’ll focus today on the “I Love You” Touch in infant massage, and why it’s effective.
When massaging your baby, remember to use unscented lotion or oil, that’s been warmed between your palms. If a baby is fussy or overly cranky, or otherwise wiggles away from your touch, hold off for a bit until your baby accepts this touch. They’re in control of their own bodies!
Using open, connected fingertips, you’ll write a little message on baby’s torso.
Starting at the top of their ribcage, you’ll move fingers firmly down the belly in an “I” shape.
Next, use fingers to write an “L”, slightly to the left of where you began the I, and ending the lower L to the right of baby’s belly button.
Now, draw a “U”, centering the shape curve around the belly button.
Get it? ILU - I love you. A non verbal, physical way to release oxytocin into baby’s body.
This calming touch creates a sense of relaxation - and for babies with tummy troubles, it gently massages the digestive tract in the direction you would like to loosen tight tummies! A two for one!
Try infant massage today with your little one, and if you’re worried you’re doing it wrong, check out our video series on massage and touch, or ask your postpartum doula to show you how!
Comentarios