How To Massage a Baby

Remove jewelry from your fingers and wrists; then wash your hands. If your fingernails are sharp or jagged, file them.

Choose a warm room for the massage. Drape a towel on the floor, changing table, or bed, and lay the baby on their back on top of the towel. Use a towel you won’t mind getting oily and possibly soiled – the baby may “let go” during the massage.

Sit in a comfortable position next to your baby. If they’re small enough to be massaged on your lap, you can stretch out your legs and move the towel across your thighs so the baby is lying with their feet pointed toward you.

Ask the baby if they would like a massage. Doing this each time will cue them, making it easier in the future for you to gauge if they want a massage or not.

Undress them – you can either leave their diaper on or remove it. If you think they’ll be cold, cover the parts you aren’t massaging with a lightweight blanket.

Pour a little oil into the palm of one hand and warm it by rubbing your hands together. Use just enough oil so that your hands will glide easily over the baby’s skin.

Hold one of the baby’s feet with one hand, and with the other, encircle the top of the thigh. Stroke the leg all the way down to the ankle, very gently squeezing along the way. This is often called “milking.” Then massage the feet and all 10 toes. Repeat with the other leg.

Now do the same thing with each arm. Grasp a hand with one of yours, and with the other, “milk” the baby’s arm from armpit to wrist. Massage each hand, working the palm and individual fingers.

Next, massage the tummy. Place both hands in the middle of the abdomen and push out lightly, as if you’re smoothing a wrinkled sheet. Do the same with baby’s chest.

Turn the baby onto her belly and massage her back with the same smoothing motion you used on her belly. By now they may already be drifting off.