Infant Massage helps improve
sociability, a babies disposition to enjoy the company of other babies their age, and comfort and soothe the infant to set
the stage for the development of a well-balanced, compassionate child, adolescent and future adult. Cross cultural studies
have shown many times over that infants who are held, massaged, carried, rocked and breast fed grow up to be less aggressive
and violent and more compassionate and cooperative. Preschool age children with behavior problems who received massage are
showed to have more focused on-task behavior, less solitary play, and less aggression.
Infant Massage promotes habituation, or simple learning, by infants after only a few minutes of massage
on the lower legs. Habituation is what helps us learn to selectively attend to specific information and stimuli that is important
and to ignore that which is not. In one study, four-month-old infants were given either 8 minutes of massage, play, or no
stimulation prior to an audiovisual habituation task. Infants who received massage showed response recovery from habituation
during test trials, whereas those in the other two conditions did not. The rate of habituation in babies is directly correlated
with mental abilities in later development.
"I have given my now three year
old daughter Infant Massage since her birth, her temperment as a toddler and young child now is very calm. She relates
stress relief to her mother's touch, she actually takes off her shoe and puts her foot out to be massaged instead of tantruming.
I still massage her in the mornings to wake her, and to sleep every night, as well as any time I can get her to sit still
long enough.
Not only do I feel as though she knows how to relieve stress,
I have also seen her rub other children and babies backs to soothe them when she hears them cry. I have taught her how
to be a nurturer as well through Infant Massage that I feel is part of her personality. This $24.95 book
to me has been priceless." -Parent Testimonial.
As well as affecting every major body system, Infant Massage most importantly promotes parent-baby
bonding and communication: Infant Massage promotes eye contact between baby and parent. Infants showed more eye contact when
adults, who were smiling and cooing, also massaged them as compared to infants who received smiling and cooing without touch.
Get the book and start Infant Massage with your little local
celebrity and find out why everyone is raving over Infant Massage!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mary Ady is a Certified
Infant Massage Instructor by the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM) since 2000.
Ms. Ady has taught Infant Massage workshops at INOVA Hospital. US News & World Report just ranked INOVA Fairfax
Hospital as one of, "2006- America's Best Hospitals," in FOUR categories, which is significant considering only
176 of 5,189 hospitals made only ONE category. This is the tenth time in the past eleven years they have ranked among America's
Best Hospitals.
Ms.Ady is the author of, "An Infant Massage Guidebook
for Well, Premature and Special Needs Babies." ISBN 978-1-4343-4060-3 Available at www.Authorhouse.com
search Mary Ady.
