| The Healthy Touch |
| Evidence shows that loving, touching, nurturing contact between caregiver and infant has a positive impact upon the infant's development. Infant massage is one of the easiest methods of providing early positive contact. Recent studies show that premature babies who were massaged every day were ahead of others in both physical and neurological development. Proponents of infant massage say that it helps to strengthen and regulate respiratory, circulatory, and gastrointestinal functions, often relieving the discomforts of colic and gas. Infant massage includes critical elements of bonding: eye-to-eye contact, skin-to-skin contact, smiling, soothing sounds and smells, cuddling, response and interaction. |
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