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Infant Massage

We offer 30 minute infant massage sessions for babies and their parents in Charleston, SC, as well as instruction online. 

Infant massage promotes bonding, growth and much more

Infant massage encourages bonding through eye-to-eye contact, smiling, soothing vocal sounds, loving touch, caressing and mutual interaction. Studies show that bonding increases a parent’s feeling of attachment as well as their desire to nurture and care for their infant.

Massage can also enhance oxygen and nutrient flow to cells and improve breathing patterns and lung health (respiration). It can enhance the release of hormones, including growth hormones to help with weight gain, and can spark neurons in the brain to grow and branch out to improve mental processing/skills (cognition).

Massage has many other physical and emotional benefits for your baby. These benefits include:

  • Promoting social, emotional and cognitive development

  • Helping a baby relax and release tensions of daily stimuli

  • Decreasing irritability and excessive crying

  • Reducing gas, colic and intestinal difficulties

  • Regulating behavioral states and promoting sleep

  • Strengthening and regulating primary systems (i.e., respiratory, circulatory, nervous, musculature, digestive and endocrine)

There are also benefits for parents and the development of parenting skills. The act of massaging an infant helps:

  • Promote better understanding of infant cues

  • Enhance communication and emotional ties

  • Increase confidence and handling skills

  • Provide quality one-on-one interaction

  • Encourage parents to unwind, relax, and listen to their baby

How touch and infant massage can enhance development

Early development is influenced by touch and infant massage can support development in these five areas:

  • Communication skills – promotes emerging speech, direct eye gaze, listening and turn taking

  • Motor skills – improves muscle tone and coordination, increases body awareness

  • Social skills – encourages infant and caregiver to engage one another

  • Self-help skills – stimulates oral motor musculature awareness, lip closure, and relaxation of tension needed for swallowing

  • Cognition – enhances overall awareness of self and body boundaries, cause and effect, and increase in attention span

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