The purpose of this blog is to educate others on infant massage and the benefits of learning infant massage by a certified instructor.  Infant massage has many benefits for infants and even older children.  Infant massage, originally developed by Vimala McClure, combines elements of Indian and Swedish massage and principles from yoga and reflexology.  Massaging your child promotes a secure attachment between you and your child, develops a sense of trust and confidence, and creates feelings of being respected and valued.  The most important aspect to know when learning infant massage is to always ask your infant or older child for permission to begin massaging.  Other than promoting a positive relationship with your child, massages help stimulate the body and may relieve pain.  

Massaging your child is beneficial because:  

• Physical touch helps stimulate the digestive system, resulting in relief of gas and constipation. 
• It relieves cramping, growing pains, or muscular tension.  
• Massage helps relieve painful symptoms of minor illnesses, such as aches, fever, congestion, and asthma-related breathing problems. 
• Infant massage promotes relaxation, which may support sleeping patterns, regulation, and behavioral states. 
• It reduces stress hormones and may increase concentration. 
• Massage helps stimulate mind and body awareness and promotes your child to explore their senses.   
• Childhood massage supports bonding and attachment between you and your child. 

 At different ages, your child may respond to being massaged differently.  For the older child, you may tell a story to the child, talk about the body parts, sing a song, or make a game out of it.  Always respect your child’s choices when offering a massage and just go with the flow!   

Why Take a Class? 

Chicago has many opportunities to learn infant massage as a parent.  If you are interested in taking classes, you should always check to make sure the class is with a Certified Infant Massage Instructor (CIMI).  The class focuses on basics of child development, learning the strokes, practicing the strokes, and adaptations of the strokes for the older or growing child. Taking a class will help you learn and understand your infant or child’s body language and cues, improve your ability to support your child with all the benefits listed above, improve the bond and relationship with your child, and even promote your relaxation as a parent!

Pretend play is an important area within a child’s development. It encourages imagination, peer interactions, and flexibility. At Blue Bird Day, the curriculum incorporates a variety of topics to promote pretend play, one of which is learning about outer space. Each discipline collaborates to ensure fluidity of learning during each rotation during a child’s day. Throughout these different rotations at Blue Bird, we learn and talk about space, create space crafts, and engage in pretend play as astronauts in outer space. 

In occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) rotation, children are encouraged to be astronauts in outer space, and engage in a multitude of activities! OTs and PTs collaborate within the same multi-sensory environment to promote motor and sensory development. When exploring the idea of space, OTs may engage a child in tactile play — including slime or foam — and pretend it is from outer space or take a ride on a dynamic piece of equipment (I.e. a swing) as if the child is in a rocket ship flying to the moon! Multiple children may be engaging in tactile play or swinging, which encourages peer interactions and turn-taking during play. Each child may have a different idea of how to play with the tactile activity, which can help promote flexibility.  

Tactile play and swinging can help regulate a child to promote improved ability to participate with PTs for gross motor activities. PTs may engage a child to explore outer space through the use of an obstacle course. A child can pretend to be an astronaut jumping through outer space between planets or maintain single leg balance to launch a stomp rocket into outer space! Different pieces of equipment can be utilized by the PT to promote balance and jumping activities, which helps to promote flexibility, gross motor development, and imagination. Children must also wait and take-turns when engaging in an obstacle course in order to maintain safety. If a child has difficulty jumping or maintaining balance, the appropriate level of assistance is provided, and the PT works to decrease the amount of assistance as the child progresses with each skill.  

OT and PT rotation is one example of how pretend play and collaboration work together to ensure fluidity of learning and skill development. Space is only one example of a topic utilized to promote pretend play with children. Each child is encouraged to utilize their own imagination to expand upon pretend play of astronauts in space and incorporate the idea into each session (rotation or individual), further promoting skill development across a variety of disciplines!