If a child is naughty, crying, do not rush to the medicine chest. Warm mother’s hands touched him, smoothed the back, breast, belly, lingered on forehead a little longer, and a child calmed down. Mother seemed to do nothing special, she just used one of the more common massage techniques - stroking.

For young children that cannot move independently, massage is means of filling motor deficit. Massage strengthens immune system, improves circulation, relieves increased muscle tone, calms before bedtime, promotes of respiratory system development, improves digestion and relieves colic. Vitamin D, which is released through a massage therapist’s hands is an excellent prevention of rickets.

Mother is the best massage therapist for a baby, her touch make him happy, in addition, is an excellent way of communication, helping to establish a close emotional bond with a baby. Even if you do something wrong, it’s not a problem: harming a child with the help of massage is difficult.

Optimal time for child massage - 40-50 minutes after feeding, when a baby is active and in good spirits. Start with 5-10 minutes, gradually increasing time. A three-month baby is already comfortable with a half-hour procedure.

Before the session, remove jewelry from hands, cut nails short. Hands should be warm and slightly moist. If you have dry skin, apply hand moisturizer half an hour before the session.

The room where a baby will be massaged, should be warm but not stuffy. Any sufficiently solid surface will fit for the procedure: changing table or hard bed.

Any massage consists of four steps. First - is stroking. You gently stroke a baby. Soothe and dispose him for massage. Massage begins and ends with this.

Rubbing. Hand movements become more intense. Your task - warm up muscles and prepare them to load. Rubbing is done in a circular motion, until light pink color, but if a baby’s skin turned red, you are clearly overdone. Fulling. At this stage, there begins work with the muscles. Imagine you are kneading the dough between your thumb and forefinger. These movements force muscles “working”. Vibration. Kids like shaking, slapping and effleurage as much as light strokes. They “shake up” tired muscles and relieve them from excessive stress.

All movements must be gentle, but confident. A child’s legs and arms should be massaged from hand or foot and moving: lymph is flowing in this direction. It is not necessarily to do a full massage every time, sometimes you can focus only on problem areas. But massaging only one body part is pointless, because the meaning of massage is in combined effect on the body.

Massage is a serious load on muscles, so do not be surprised if a child turns sleepy after massage.