Baby Massage

[SANA]

Does anybody massage thier baby and if so from what age do u start and how?

I went to classes at our local Surestart. You can do it up until they get wriggly- I had to stop at 6 months.
Use cooking oil/sunflower oil ar olive oil- YEP it sounds gross. Honestly though you do use these oils- less chance of allergies etc. Hard to describe what you do really- you'be better going to a class or getting a book. If you do it incorrectly I spose you could hurt your baby.

We go to classes run by the hospital. I think you can start after 6 wks old. We were told to use sunflower or olive oil(dont use nut oil) as less chance of allergies and it absorbs into the skin unlike baby oil also if baby gets olive oil on their hands and then puts it in their mouth you dont need to worry about them tasting the oil.
I dont think you can hurt the baby by massage alone. If you wanted to have a go yourself you can get a book from the library. But basically just make yourself comfortable in a warm room rub some oil on your hands and start stroking the limbs etc of the baby. Might be some basic moves on the internet. Do a search.

I went to a class - but I just do a basic massage on my ds (6.5 mo) - they said at the class to keep on massaging babies for as long as poss as the benefits are fantastic. I must admit my dh does the bath/bed routine normally so ds only gets a massage on the odd occasion that I do his bath - but he loves it.
Plus I just use extra virgin olive oil and it is v good for your hands if they are dry.

We did it at our local health centre. They also started to do some baby yoga with us which was great. Very basic, a bit of a combo of massage, stretching and singing. Birthlight.com do classes and books // vids / dvds etc. I got the singing babies vid as I could never remember the words when I was at home. DD now 6months. Don't do it so much now but was great from 3 months to 5 months ish.

I did a short course when DD was about 6 weeks old at our local community college. To be honest I found it useful when she had colic - they teach you moves to do on their tummy - but as she was never a really touchy baby she didn't like it much. It was however a really good way for me to make new friends, which at the time was a real life saver .