The moment we become parents we use our sense of touch to communicate with our brand new baby.  I will never forget that first moment in my each of my babies lives, when they started to experience and explore the world completely independently of me.  The first thing I did was reach out to my newborn and without exchanging a single sound, we were instantly familiar to each other.

The research that outlines the benefits of touch and infant massage is extensive.  Any expert will go on and on about how there is a fancy chemical reaction going on in my brain (central nervous system) that releases a feel-good hormone (serotonin) that counters stress hormones (cortisol) and that is why I feel that connection with my newborn.  What I actually experience in those first moments of my child’s new life is nothing short of magical.

This is not meant to imitate the many hundreds of articles that are already out there that outline the benefits of Pediatric Massage Therapy, but there is a little Massage Therapist inside me that cannot encourage you enough to explore it.   Children ages 0-99 can benefit from Registered Massage Therapy, but in the mean time treatment can start at home or even heart beats after birth.

After spending much time looking for a nursery rhyme that could incorporate a meaningful massage into its singsong format, I decided to write my own for you to try:

Bedtime Butterfly Kisses

Belinda the beautiful butterfly was bouncing on a breeze

Gracefully she glided to give my shoulder a squeeze

“How do you do?” Belinda sung so sweet.

“May I rest here while my heart slows a beat?”

She stopped but a moment before she began to explore

Hugging my arm she looked way down to the floor.

Three times she wandered from shoulder to finger

But I liked her so I indulged, and hoped she would linger.

Perched in my hand, she started stroking my palm

It tickled before I realized it made me feel calm.

She drew circles and hearts with her nose on my skin

Before she giggled and climbed back up to my chin.

With a fluttering kiss to my cheek she gently rubbed my head

And then softly she whispered, “Baby, time for bed.”

Though my eyelids are heavy I try to protest

To forget Belinda when I wake I’d deeply regret

Belinda’s wings push the air across my sleepy face

Like angel kisses made out of the most delicate lace

“Rest well little one,” She sings, “And think not of sorrow.

If you go to sleep now I can come back tomorrow.”

You can be creative and pretend your own hand is a butterfly.  I used an inexpensive IKEA  (Gulleplutt .99$ CP) finger puppet. Don’t let you imagination stop there.  As your child grows out of silly rhymes consider getting creative and making an imaginary pizza on your kiddo’s back, belly or palm. What about planting a garden and watching it grow?

I can give you more research that indicates why it is important to perform these treatments at the same time each day, in a calm space with a warm blanket and yadda yadda, but experience has taught me that even when my son or daughter is in middle of their wildest meltdown behavioral state; a nurturing touch with loving intent is the only cure. For the Silo, Jenny Tansley.