After the umbilical cord falls off, you can start giving your child abhyanga (massage) for five or ten minutes
each morning or evening before bed, using warm sesame oil, coconut oil or ghee. Baby abhyanga is a gentle sequence of strokes designed to improve your baby’s
digestion, loosen muscular tension, and increase muscle strength. Its benefits include: * Gently presses impurities out of the tissues into the channels of the body. * Enhances circulatory system. * Brings nourishing blood and oxygen to all cells of the body. * Helps digestion and settles stomach pain or gas. * Relaxes the baby and promotes deeper sleep. * Releases stress and tension caused by the baby’s having been cramped in the fetal position in the womb. * Facilitates and enhances communication, sharing, and bonding. * Keeps the baby settled and happy. * A warm bath afterwards allows the channels to expand so the impurities can be released. Because the skin is something like an outer nervous system, it makes sense that gently massaging the skin could have such dramatic effects on the mind, emotions, and body.
Wait half an hour after feedings to start the massage. Skip it when the baby has a cold or fever. Otherwise you can do it every day. The room should always be warm. Babies are much more sensitive to cold than are adults. The baby has less body mass to hold the heat, and will cool much more quickly than an adult. As you do the abhyanga,
speak gently and sweetly to your baby and let her know what you’re doing. Use gentle and slow movements. Support your baby’s head and neck whenever you’re the one changing her position. Use a circular motion on the joints and long strokes on the limbs. Traditionally, Vedic texts recommend mild cleansers to remove the oil from the baby, such as chickpea flour and milk.
Warm water or warm milk is often enough by itself to remove the oil. Better not to use soap. Also, you don’t need to wash her hair more than once a week. The oil protects the baby’s scalp and head. It is a good idea to keep the head covered with a cotton cap, especially after massage.
Because the cell membrane is lipid soluble, fats such as sesame oil can penetrate it. Pure sesame oil penetrates the pores of the skin and inner cell membranes, replacing the older (fatty) molecules that make up the cell walls with new lipid molecules. The older lipid molecules containing wastes get flushed away by fresh new molecules. You can see why it’s important to use the highest grade of organic sesame oil. Sesame oil also has a unique antibacterial quality. One study found that sesame oil retards the growth of skin cancer.
Infant massage helps growth and development. Babies who are massaged gain more weight, they sleep better, they are less irritable, they are more responsive, they have better interactions with their parents and they show superior mental and motor development. Massage speed development of the brain and nervous system, improving mind-body integration. You don’t have to stop as the children grow older.
For thousands of years, Ayur-Veda has noted that
mother’s milk is the ideal nourishment for the baby. Modern medicine has come to the same conclusion. The mortality rate for breast-fed infants is lower than the rate for bottle-fed ones.
Mother’s milk is ideal for the body’s digestion and contains all the nutrients your baby needs in an easily digestible form. Breast fed babies have better immunity. Antibodies are transmitted in the mother’s milk. Breast-fed babies have fewer psychological problems later in life. Breast feeding is essential for the child’s future mental balance and happiness. It also helps establish the delicate bond of love. Research on breast-feeding reveals a startling range of benefits. Breast-fed children are physically and mentally more developed than bottle-fed children. Bottle-fed are less nutritionally sound, get sick more often, and take longer to walk and talk. Dental decay is so much more prevalent among non-breastfed children that it is called “nursing-bottle syndrome”.
Development of speech is much more advanced in breast-fed children, showing superiority in clarity of articulation, tonal quality, reading ability, and general confidence. Babies often have gas, caused because their delicate new digestive systems are not yet functioning perfectly. If some of the milk doesn’t get digested properly, it causes pockets of air to collect in the digestive tract. Burping helps dispel the air pockets, as does bouncing. One of the best ways to help your baby’s digestion is to give him abhyanga each morning. Massage his tummy with warm oil using a circular motion from right to left, for about nine circles. Then cover the tummy with a warm washcloth for five minutes. Placing a hot water bottle on your baby’s stomach for ten to fifteen minutes can also help dispel gas.