Baby Massage for Colic

Baby massage for colic can help your colicky baby but you may be wondering how it can help?

Managing colic symptoms

Baby massage can really help your baby manage their symptoms of colic. As I have said in many of my articles, colic is often caused by trapped wind.

Baby massage uses strokes and pressure on your baby’s tummy to expel the trapped wind. It moves gas and the air bubbles that form in the gut down through the stomach and the bowel – and then hopefully out of the body in the form of flatulence.

Aiding digestion

Baby massage also regulates gastric motility (movement of the food from the mouth to the stomach and out of the body) and also enhances food digestion. A baby’s digestive system can be immature and giving your baby a helping hand can be really beneficial. By massaging your baby’s tummy can help it work more effectively.

Maturing the digestive system

As mentioned above, a baby’s digestive system can be immature. The massage strokes can help mature the digestive system as it helps a process called myelination. I’ll spare you the complicated science, so simply put, massaging helps to develop the fat that coats the nerve endings. This improves body to brain communication. It means the brain is able to communicate to the digestive system more quickly and effectively. Making it less sluggish and less likely that trapped gas will occur.

Release of hormones

Another amazing benefit is that massage releases natural pain killing hormones, known as endorphins which will help deal with abdominal discomfort.

Another hormone released by massage is oxytocin. This will not only help bond parent and baby but have a relaxing effect for both baby and parent. It also reduces the stress hormone cortisol.

A baby massage can really help colic and can result in a calmer and happier family.