Infant massage, healing tool for premature babies - VOXXI

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Posted on November 13, 2012 By Hope Gillette Health

Premature babies receiving massage gained more weight than those not receiving massage, says study (Shutterstock photo)

Massaging infants born prematurely may help boost their immune systems and encourage weight gain, indicates a study published in the journal Pediatrics.
According to the research, no negative side effects of infant massage were seen, and those babies massaged daily, regardless of initial birth weight, weighed more at the end of the trial period.
Dr. Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo, director of the allergy and immunology division at Miami Children’s Hospital, who was not involved in the study, told MyHealthNewsDaily, “I think it’s pretty exciting. The stress that is involved in the NICU setting is really tremendous. Anything that we can do to make it better for these babies is important.â€￾
[h=3]Infant massage study[/h] For the research, Dr. Jocelyn Ang, an associate professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and her team evaluated 120 premature babies*in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Those infants were then randomly assigned a massage routine or a no-massage routine. Those receiving infant massage were administered daily 45-minute sessions, *five days a week, for a period of 4 weeks.
Infants were not included if they were considered unstable and were receiving medications or if they were being breastfed. According to researchers, the natural antibodies in breast milk would have skewed the results.

The medical benefits of massage are not limited to adults (Shutterstock photo)

The massage itself consisted of gentle stroking and flexion of the joints in the arms and legs. Researchers following the data were no told which babies were being massaged and which babies were not.
At the end of the trial period blood samples were collected from the infants to test for natural killer cells, cells of the immune system responsible for killing pathogens.
In the infants receiving massages, the killer cells were not significantly higher in number; however, the cells appeared to have advanced killing ability compared to samples taken from the non-massage group.
Average weight gain for the massaged infants was also more than that of the non-massage group.
Massaged premature infants gained an average of one ounce every week, while the non-massage group gained approximately 0.9 ounces a week.
Researchers feel the weight gain is attributed to increased hormone production brought on by the infant massage.
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