Infant and Baby Massage for Parents: Programs, Evidence and Cautions

Urgent Signs First

Do not massage a baby who seems unwell, and do not use massage to put off getting care. In the US, call 911 if your baby is hard to wake or has difficulty breathing. The NHS lists these signs for children, in its UK advice: drowsy and hard to wake, difficulty breathing (grunting, the stomach sucking in under the ribs, or very fast breathing), and not responding as usual or not interested in feeding. [1] It also says to seek urgent advice for a baby under 3 months with a temperature of 38C or higher. [1] NCCIH adds a general rule: do not use massage therapy to postpone seeing a health care provider. [2]

What Infant Massage Is

Infant massage is when a parent or carer uses gentle touch and oil to stroke a baby while talking softly and making eye contact. [3] It is widely offered by health services as a bonding activity. Health-service pages describe benefits such as bonding, comfort and help with wind or colic. [3] Those are program statements. They are not the same as trial findings, which are below.

What Reviews Found

1. Premature babies

   Serious

   NCCIH says premature babies who are massaged may gain weight better [2]; a meta-analysis of 34 studies found about 0.53 g more daily weight gain [7]

   Promising but limited; hospital setting

2. Healthy full-term babies under 6 months

   Unclear

   A 2013 Cochrane review of 34 studies, 20 at high risk of bias, concluded the findings do not currently support use with low-risk parents and infants [4]

   Insufficient evidence of benefit

3. The earlier 2006 Cochrane version

   Unclear

   Found no effect on growth, but some evidence of better mother-infant interaction, sleep, less crying; said no evidence of harm [5]

   Weak; superseded by the 2013 update

4. Pain, jaundice and weight gain, ages 0 to 12 months

   Unclear

   A 2022 review of 16 trials with 1,416 infants reported benefits on all three, with results to be read with caution [6]

   Promising but limited

5. Healthy full-term growth

   Unclear

   NCCIH: no benefit clearly shown for normal full-term infants [2]

   No good evidence of benefit

6. Mothers with postnatal depression

   Unclear

   A review of 8 studies reported fewer depression symptoms with mother-led infant massage [8]

   Promising but limited

Parents cannot be blinded to giving a massage, and many trials used no-treatment comparisons, so parent mood and attention may explain part of what was measured. The jaundice finding does not make massage a jaundice treatment, and no source we read says it can replace medical care. Proper evidence not found for massage as treatment of colic, reflux, constipation or sleep problems in a trial we could read; we searched PubMed for infant massage reviews and read the NHS and NCCIH pages.

The 2022 review noted that no adverse effects of infant massage were observed in its studies. [6] That is reassuring but not proof of safety for every baby.

What Health-Service Leaflets Say About Timing and Skin

These come from a local NHS service in England and a hospital leaflet in Scotland, not from a national guideline:

• Timing of the first session: wait until 4 to 6 weeks after birth so the skin can adapt. [3]
• Readiness: all babies can have massage, but not all like it at first or are ready, and you can stop and try again later. [3]
• Oil: a non-scented cold-pressed vegetable oil is best on babies' skin, and potential allergens such as peanut or sesame should be avoided in oils if the baby has eczema or broken skin. [3] Test the skin with the oil the day before. [9]
• After feeds: wait at least 45 minutes after a feed. [9]
• Pressure and pace: the leaflet describes slow, rhythmical strokes with firm but gentle pressure, and notes some babies tolerate only a very small amount to begin with. [9]

For essential oils on babies, see essential oil safety; this page recommends no scented products.

Learning It Safely

Learn from a health visitor, midwife or qualified infant massage instructor rather than from video alone. A trial in 98 fathers found a short massage video was well accepted and increased observed father-infant interactions, but it did not measure infant health outcomes. [10] We give no stroke-by-stroke instructions here.

Related Pages

See massage for children and teens, postpartum massage, aromatherapy massage and the children and teens safety guide.