Posted May 5, 2011
Tiffany Gallion learned something pretty quickly about her 8-month-old son, Waylon, after she began giving him massages.
“He doesn’t like his stomach messed with,” she said. Waylon does enjoy his massages though and Gallion said she’s recommended that other parents learn the techniques she learned from Melanie McDonald, a certified infant massage instructor, at The Judy Center at Beall Elementary School.
“It’s the most relaxing class I teach,” McDonald, who is also the executive director of The Family Junction, said. “It’s pretty simple; we demonstrate on doll babies, then they practice along with us. We also give them a book to take home,” McDonald said. McDonald has been teaching the classes, offered periodically, for about five years.
The Judy Center provides funding for the class. Family Junction provides the teacher, and Family Support Services coordinates enrollment and snacks, McDonald said. “Usually we teach the class several times throughout the year,” she said. The class is one session and lasts about an hour and a half.
“I really liked it; Waylon has some neck muscle issues. He tolerated it well,” said Gallion. “It’s a lot easier than I anticipated. It was better than I expected, it was really hands-on,” Gallion said.
Some of the health benefits of massage for infants include relief of pain and colic, relaxation and the development of good muscle tone, according to Loving Touch’s website. The Loving Touch organization promotes and offers training on infant massage.
Infant massage isn’t only for moms, said McDonald. Dads are encouraged to come too, and overall, the classes break down with about 70 percent mothers and 30 percent fathers.
“We also have had grandparents come as well,” McDonald said. Since the classes are relaxed and informal, parents can change a diaper, and nurse or feed a baby. McDonald is not a licensed massage therapist, so she demonstrates on the doll, not on the actual babies.
“We teach the strokes in sequence. The parents take the booklet home and we give them a little bottle of massage oil. We encourage them to use apricot oil rather than a mineral-based oil, it’s much gentler. They can also borrow a video,” McDonald said.
“People think they have to do it exactly right,” but that’s not the case, McDonald said, and parents can learn a lot from the baby’s reaction to the massage as they continue to practice it at home. “Times when the baby is quietly alert is the best time to do it, when the baby is calm, looking around, but not active,” McDonald said.
The atmosphere created in the class is one of the best aspects of the class, McDonald said.
“The first thing I notice is that the parent enjoys it as much as the babies. All the parents are smiling,” she said. “It’s relaxing and soothing — the soft music, it gets everyone in a relaxed mode,” McDonald said. “Last class, the babies were on their bellies, and the parents were massaging their backs, it got really quiet,” she said.
For more about infant massage, visit http://www.lovingtouch.com/.
For more information on the Family Junction, visit http://www.thefamilyjunction.org/.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com.
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Copyright © 2011, Cumberland Times-News, Md.
