How Does Infant Massage Help Relieve Colic?
Colic is a mysterious condition that many parents have a hard
time figuring out, even with the help of their doctors. Luckily,
through infant massage you can find some relief for both your
baby and yourself. When you combine infant massage with other
things, you might find that you can almost do away with colic
altogether. Never thought about massaging your baby to help
relax and relieve pain? Well, it's time to start!
The type of massaging you use is something you might want to
talk with your pediatrician about or even get in touch with your
chiropractor and they may be able to recommend a book or class
on massaging your child. There are endless books in bookstores,
libraries, and on the Internet that will teach you how to
massage your baby in a way that will help relieve the pain and
the pressure that is causing them to cry and suffer but will not
injure their somewhat fragile little bodies.
Infant massage helps for a couple of reasons. The first is that
it helps to relax your baby. Slow movements will help your baby
from getting too wound up and getting to the point where they
are crying inconsolably. A lot of the time just allowing your
child to relax will help you both from getting so stressed out
and making the situation even worse than it is. Infant massage
may also help your child because it helps to distract the baby
from the pain they are in. It seems like your child couldn't
possibly be distracted, right? But, they often can with a good
massage. Think about how you feel when you are just laying on
the bed thinking about your sore back or shoulders, it hurts
worse because you have nothing else to think about. When you
start doing something else, it takes your attention somewhere
else and suddenly it doesn't hurt as much. The same thing will
happen when you massage your baby.
Infant massage actually helps to move gas out of the intestines,
relieving your baby of terrible gas pains. During infancy
doctors believe that the intestines may actually be kinked,
which may painfully trap air inside causing pain. When you do
leg massages and even rub the belly you can help move the gas
past the kinks to help your child find some relief.
Another reason that infant massage often works is because babies
loved to be touched. It's been proven that babies that are held
and touched more suffer less from colic. Just feeling your
loving touch may provide some comfort to your child, so why not
massage them lovingly to help relieve their discomfort? Colic
isn't fun, but when you take steps to help provide some relieve
both you and your baby can get through it quite well.