How to massage your baby for health and happiness

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I hope this helps!

Sere

 

Hi Vinunagpal,

lol she's a hyper energetic little girl.

However if you want to massage her, you can try massaging when she's sleepy--not too sleepy that she's going sleep any minute but the usual time that she starts feeling drowsy and takes a nap soon. This will take away most of her energy and she will finally be relaxing making it easier to massage in that state.

If she gets alert and wants oil bottle then give her something to hold onto that will get her attention while you massage her. Maybe her favorite toy?

Or if she's pacified while watching tv or listening to music, then you try to put that too but don't try to put anything energetic in case she will not be sleepy. Relaxing music or her favorite program might help. You can even talk to the baby soothingly or even sing to her too.

As for oil, I found a tip here: vegetable or plant oil, i.e. not traditional baby oil, which is mineral based. Plant based oils are easy to absorb into the skin, and easily digested if your baby sucks his thumb with oil attached! Mineral oils are not readily absorbed and, if not harmful are certainly not good for you. So which oil? The two most common are grapeseed oil and sweet almond oil. (from Infant Massage)

As for unwanted hair on her,
I found this nice tip from net:

[FONT=arial,helvetica] I can suggest a recipe I used on my Daughter when she was an infant. It worked very well as she was born quite hairy (she was premature) but after massaging her regularly with this, she became much fairer and the hair on her body also reduced.
Badam 1/2 cup (ground to fine paste)
I jaiphal (ground to fine paste)
Besan 1 cup
Rice floor 1/2 cup
Vekhand powder 1/2 cup
Amba Haldi 1/2 cup
Mix all these to-gether to get a fine powder. Whenever you use, add a little malai and massage all over your baby's body. Leave for a few seconds and then gently rub off. You can start with face and rub the paste all over the lega and arma. By this time the paste will have dried on the face so rub it off gently. Be careful, be gentle or your baby 's skin may become red. You will see a dramatic difference in just a few days. U can use this yourself also and see how soft your skin feels!

(baby's dry skin and unwanted body hair)

Also, I read in many sites that unwanted baby will go off in time so you don't have to do anything particularly for it. Some say you can massage it like in the recipe above but just know that the hair won't last long on her.

I hope this helps

Sere
[/FONT]

 

Hi Vinunagpal,

Sorry for late reply but here's my suggestions.

Your baby shouldn't have too many clothes on since it distracts from massage. Even if she doesn't have a diaper on too, it will be better and less distracting for the massage.

If the sleepy idea doesn't work, then why don't you try massaging her before she eats but not when she's hungry. For instance like several hours after her breakfast but after her bath (so its more relaxing) but an hour or two before her usual lunch time. She should be satisfied in her appetite not full from breakfast or lunch too. After the massage is over, try a light meal for her instead of heavy one. Make sure that she doesn't get the massage just before or after a meal.

I would say one good time could be after her bath (and after her breakfast), when you usually try to dress her. You can massage her and then dress her after wards.

As for the plastic sheet, there might be two things that can happen: 1. if you put the plastic sheet under her and on top of it a towel or bedsheet for the massage, she might think that its nappy time, 2. she might just be quieter playing with plastic sheet and might not want the oil bottle.

You can try to see with and without the plastic sheet to see which is better for her. Also to not mess up the bedsheet, put a towel or something soft cloth that you would wash later for the massage so the bedsheet wouldn't get messy.

Also, if she wants to take the oil bottle, you can something to deceive her and make her quieter--try having a similar oil bottle but have water inside the bottle and give that to her but make sure you don't have the real oil bottle in her sight so she doesn't want both of them too. Or you can just tightly cap the oil bottle and give it to her when you are not using it so she can be quieter but make sure to keep on eye on the bottle in case she opens it. You can even put something like maybe a rubber band or something on the cap so that it can't easily come even if she tries to shake it or take off the cap.

When she has the oil bottle like this she doesn't need tv so turn off the tv since it might be distracting for her. Make sure she's in a comfortable room temperature and you can have nice relaxing music or even can sing relaxing lullaby songs to her. She might not seem to hear it if you talk to her, but don't mind that. Just use soothing voice for her so that it's all part of the comfortable experience.

One major thing though is to make sure you don't massage her when she's uncomfortable! And if she seems to get uncomfortable/changes her attention to something else like playing, etc during a massage, then it's a signal to stop the massage.

And in any case if she doesn't want the massage and is too wriggly, then it just might be the time to stop massaging her at that age since she's more active and growing up. It's not your fault or anything, so just keep an open mind on that possibility.

Good luck!

Sere