Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/ask-dr.-sue-massage-therapy/5013370/
For most of us who work in child care, it is no surprise that loving touches can help and heal. First practiced over 2000 years ago, massage has had its ups and downs in popularity. In the United States, massage has been part of sports conditioning, sexual pleasure, and loving touches. Now scientists are finding that massage can foster growth and development, attention and learning; that massage can lessen pain, reduce strain under stress, and reduce symptoms of certain diseases. In a review article in Contemporary Pediatrics, the research findings from studies of pre-mature infants seem to suggest that firm pressure (short of bruising) promotes weight gain, behavior assessment scores, and earlier discharges from the hospital.Infants
Massage seems to offer more benefits than does just rocking of infants. In full-term infants, when researchers compared 15 minutes of massage with 15 minutes of rocking for infants one to three months of age, the massaged infants had better weight gain, cried less, and had lower levels of stress hormone in their saliva and higher levels of serotonin. They scored higher on positive social-emotional measures of development, too.
Injury
The common practice of rubbing a body part just injured could be a learned behavior. Massage ...