Touch is your baby's first language, so massage is a beautiful form of communication between you and your infant. There are many benefits to infant massage for both baby and parents, including the following:

• Parent-infant bonding is enhanced through the skin contact, eye contact and vocalization used during the massage

• Promotes weight gain: in a study of preterm newborns, the infants that were massaged gained 47 percent more weight per day than the non-massaged preemies.
• Help relieve colic or gassy spells. Stimulates the digestive process.

• Infant massage provides the quality time that busy/working parents are desperately seeking! A quiet 15 to 30 minutes of massage followed by a warm bath and feeding says "I am focused on you."

• Helps raise the "stimulation threshold" of your little one.

• Through massage, and the intimacy, care-giving, communication and play that accompanies it, parent's feeling of competence is increased.

• Numerous organ systems are stimulated through the practice of massaging your little one, including the muscular, nervous, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular systems.

• Loving touch is validating. Baby is heard and acknowledged.

• Parents learn how to read their baby's cues and respond more readily.

• Provided Dad with an avenue for the intimate communication Mom typically shares with baby during breast feeding.