Baby Massage

Preparation

Choose a moment in which you and your child are relaxed and calm. A half hour after the baby has eaten is recommended.

Be sure that the room temperature is warm (78 degrees Fahrenheit). Undress the baby completely, if the weather is cold or humid cover the areas of the baby's body that are not being massaged.

Put the baby on a soft surface so your baby will feel comfortable and secure. Keep some little pillows handy.

It is a good idea to put some cream on your hands and rub them together so they will be soft and warm.

Basically the massage flows from the head to the toes. With soft and gentle touches you will work on the head, face, shoulders, arms, chest, stomach and legs.

While you massage your baby look tenderly at him/her. Doing this you stimulate all the senses of the baby and establish a more intense visual and tactile communication. Feel free to speak to your baby, do not inhibit yourself.

Remember that your touches should be tender do not make mechanic motions. Try to be flexible by not keeping a rigid routine.

If the baby wants to change position let them do so. Do not force your baby to keep a position, you can go back to these areas later on.

Technique

Pressure to use:
Close your eyes and press your eyelids. The pressure you should use is the same as pressing your eyelids without any discomfort.
In the small areas use your fingertips. In bigger areas use the palm of your hand. "Little strokes" mean to touch your baby's skin gently and "massage" is to softly move the muscles under the skin.

Step by Step Description
The head:
Touch the forehead, temples and the base of the cranium
Eyebrows and eyelids
Nose
Cheeks
The area around the mouth
Ears and surrounding area

Jaws:
The frontal part of the neck
(Remember doing this very gently)
Make small strokes and massage the posterior part of the neck with slow movements down to the shoulders.
Softly put both hands on his/her shoulders. Caress the baby from the neck to the shoulders in the direction of his chest.

Shoulders and arms:
Form a ring with your fingers and thumb around your child's arm. Begin to caress around the armpit and then go down along the arm. Be very careful when you arrive at the elbow, it is a very sensitive region. In the wrist you can gently practice turning motions using. Remember to take great care with all these motions.

Stomach:
Massage the stomach in a circular way (the genitalia area is excluded from the massage). Caress the abdomen moving your hands clockwise beginning below the ribs.

Legs:
Caress each leg with your whole hand, press gently on the thighs. Slightly flex the legs and knees pressing the thighs gently against the body.
Heels and feet:
A foot massage is very relaxing. Begin by putting a soft pressure on each toe, then the foot and return to the toes again. Sometimes a foot massage can help reduce stomach pain. Caress gently all the toes. Apply circular movements at the heels.

Back:
Turn your baby around.
Begin with large and slow movements that include head, neck, back and legs always in one direction.
Give your baby soft strokes on the shoulders and back and massaging with your fingertips with circular movements. Do not massage the spinal cord, only put your hands over it and let the baby feel the warm sensation. You can even make small circular movements on your baby's back.
Put your hands at the top of the legs and begin gently caressing while working your way down towards the foot.

When you arrive to the feet start again from the top. With soft and slow movements finish the massage starting once again at the head and back to the toes.

REMEMBER:

* Repeat these exercises when you want to have a few special moments with your
baby.
* Do them when you have adequate time for you and your child.
* Do not feel impatient if the baby does not cooperate...simply try again later.

Finally: There are many ways to express your love, this is ONLY ONE of them...

Calcium May Cut Pregnancy Problems

The food you eat should be your first choice for getting proper nutrition. However, you have the added burden of being intolerant of one of the best sources of calcium. Therefore, it is good that you are taking supplements. Between the foods you eat and your supplements, you should aim to get around 1,000 milligrams to 1,300 milligrams of calcium daily, especially during the last trimester.

Getting enough calcium during pregnancy might keep moms-to-be and their babies healthy. Studies reveal that women who supplement with calcium during pregnancy have a reduced incidence of high blood pressure and preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is marked by high blood pressure and a high level of protein in urine. It’s often accompanied by swelling in the legs, feet, and hands.

If untreated, preeclampsia can become more severe, possibly prompting seizures and even the death of the mother and baby before, during, or after childbirth.

The U.S. Institute of Medicine recommends that during pregnancy, calcium intake should be 1,000 to 1,300 milligrams per day from diet and supplements. The researchers gave participants chewable tablets containing 1,500 daily milligrams of calcium carbonate or a placebo that looked and tasted like the real thing.

Women taking calcium who were up to 20 years old had a lower risk of preterm delivery.

Calcium interferes with magnesium absorption, so take additional magnesium. It is not critical that you take the magnesium and calcium together. I recommend 500 mg. of magnesium for every 1000 mg. of calcium. It is best if you take the magnesium supplement in smaller doses throughout the day, since the body can only absorb a small amount at a time. (Milk naturally has the right balance of magnesium and calcium.)

Bringing up baby: emotion's early role

Three-month-old infants may not be able to walk and talk, but by that age they appear able to differentiate among several of their mothers' emotional expressions, according to psychologists at Rutgers--The State University, in New Brunswick, N.J. This is the youngest age at which such discriminations have been shown, say investigators Jeannette M. Haviland and Mary Lelwica, and it suggests that the regulation and shaping of emotional responses begins in the early weeks of life.

information,' report the researchers in the January DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, "leading to an emotional expression and an emotional state in the infant.' While each emotional display had a specific effect on the infants, their behavior was not merely an imitation of the mothers' expressions.

A number of studies have shown that by 6 months most infants can tell the difference between posed versions of several facial expressions, and that they preferentially look at happy poses rather than sad, neutral or angry poses.

Haviland and Lelwica tested 12 infants(6 boys and 6 girls) at 10 weeks old. The infants' mothers were trained to display happy, sad and angry facial expressions. Each expression was presented to the infants in four 15-second periods, with the mother turning her head away for 20 seconds between periods. While facing their babies, mothers were instructed to speak continuously, saying, "You make me [happy, sad or mad]' and matching their voices to the facial expressions.

Videotapes of mothers and infants were independently analyzed by the researchers for second-by-second changes in behavior and emotional expression.

The researchers were easily able to identify each mother's emotion display over a 15-second interval, although most mothers did not continuously hold to the precise expression they were trained on. Nevertheless, consistent patterns of infant responses to the three emotional displays were apparent within 1 second following the mothers' presentation of an expression.

Infants initially reacted to their mothers'happy presentations by matching the joyful expression. Over the four presentations, however, infants' facial movements and the amount of time they gazed at their mothers became increasingly expressive of interest and less expressive of happiness. Infants faced forward continuously during these sessions.

Anger expressions increased and physical movement and expressions of interest decreased over the mothers' four angry presentations. Infants frequently looked toward the side during these sessions. Crying was rare, except in four infants who were not included in the final sample because the anger display caused intense crying.

In response to mothers' sad expressions,infants predominantly engaged in "mouthing' behavior that included lip and tongue sucking and pushing the lips in and out. This appears to be a "self-soothing' response to the sad expressions, note the researchers. Infants tended to gaze down during these sessions.