Just as an adult can benefit from positive touch and massage, so too can infants.  Research studies have proven that massage performed on pre-term babies results in faster weight gain and increased food intake with resultant improvement in gastrointestinal functioning.  This, in turn, decreases gastric retention and abdominal destention.  Sucking also seems to improve with better gastrointestinal function in pre-term babies (Field et al. 1986).

Studies show that premature infants who receive massage show greater responsiveness to both tactile and visual stimuli than those pre-term babies that did not receive massage.  In fact, the performance of the massaged pre-term babies in these areas was no different from full-term babies.  Therefore, massage and tactile stimulation of the pre-term baby improves growth which leads to an earlier discharge from the hospital (Brown, 1984).

Healthy infants also respond well to massages showing improved temperament and physiological health, such as reduced colic and less fussiness.

Massage of infants by the parents, in all cases, can provide an opportunity for positive interactions with the baby and allows for emotional bonding between the infant and parent as well as affecting the infant's developement for the better (Field, 1995).

Baby massage appointments are 30 minutes in length and include a full-body massage  focussing on teaching the parents how to massage their baby.