The final part of infant massage is to practice some muscle-movement with your baby. This allows them to passively strengthen their muscles, explore the range of motion of their various joints, and increase their awareness of how muscle groups can be coordinated to produce movement.
Newborn and young infants will likely not have a large range of motion, as they are used to having their arms and legs tucked close to their bodies, in utero. This is fine - simply practice movements with your baby to the extent that he is able. As your baby gets older, his range of motion will grow as well.
The final movement on this video (an exercise of the abdominal, back and neck muscles), should not be done on babies younger than about 3 months. While the exercise is designed to help your baby gain "core strength," he must already have at least some amount of head and neck control in order for this movement to be safe. Never to this type of exercise with a newborn or very young infant, as his head may simply" dangle,"causing a lot of damaging stress on the neck and spine. However, after your baby has gained some head control, this exercise is excellent for helping him to continue building the abdominal and back strength that he needs along the developmental path of rolling, sitting, crawling, and walking.
As a wrap-up, you may have noticed during many of these videos that James is quite wiggly, and not always content to be laying on the floor. I have done my best to present all of the massage techniques as "visibly" as possible. However, in reality, you will need to change your techniques as your baby grows and becomes more mobile. For example, if you start a leg massage and your baby rolls on his tummy, do a few strokes of the back massage. If he flips again, rub his arms. Do a quick chest massage when you get your baby out of the bath, or a face massage to distract him at the changing table. You can easily fit a body massage into your baby's day, but you may have to get creative! Using rhymes and games during the massage may also help to keep your baby's attention as he gets older.
Regular massage may help your baby to develop a sense of "body awareness," and an ability to tell when he is tense. As a toddler or older child, your (former) baby may be able to ask for a massage when it's appropriate because he will know what it feels like to be tense. Often, we as adults have no idea what this "tenseness" feels like, because we haven't developed a good sense for what "relaxed" feels like.
Hopefully baby massage will prove to be a great bridge of communication between you and your baby during these rapid developmental times!
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