Everyone knows about the benefits of massage. It is also not a secret that the foot massage helps the child learn to stand and walk, not to mention that this is just a useful thing. Relaxing foot massage for children will help to remove the increased tone, stimulating the opposite, will strengthen the legs.
Foot massage for newborns
Massage for preventive purposes is recommended to all children. And do not be afraid to do it yourself, professional masseuses can be used only in cases of extreme necessity - when massage is prescribed by a doctor.
Daily massage can begin to be done in the second month of the baby's life, after the umbilical cord grows.
Here are some rules that need to be adhered to when doing foot massage for babies:
- The room in which the massage will be conducted should be ventilated, but not cold. The child should be comfortable lying naked.
- Mom's hands should be warm, without long nails, rings and bracelets.
- Time to choose this when the baby is in a good mood.
- When doing massage, do not forget to talk with the child.
- Every day, before bathing, try to do a relaxing massage - it will be useful for the nervous system of crumbs.
How to do a foot massage for a child?
1. Start the massage with light stroking strokes.
2. Raise the child's leg perpendicular to the surface. With your right hand, grab the child's thigh so that it is in the ring between the thumb and all the other fingers. Begin to do easy stroking from the top down (ie from the hip to the foot), gradually increasing the speed of movement and the force of pressure. Reaching the foot, return to the initial position, the foot itself until it touches. Exercise 5-6 times per foot.
3. Place your right hand on the child's thigh and the other on the calf of the same leg. Lightly push and start as if to "squeeze" the leg. Do 3-4 times.
4. Take the child's foot in the right hand, the left will do the following movements, start with the heel, moving up:
- sharp short movements, reminiscent of carrot cleaning;
- Pull the fingers of the fingers on the entire surface of the foot, constantly changing the force of pressure.
Both exercises do 3-4 times.
5. Fingers of the right hand run through the fingers of the baby, gently stroking, then go to the rubbing movements with three fingers - large, medium and index.
6. These exercises will develop the joints of the foot and knee, but they need to be done carefully.
- Take the child's foot in the right hand so that your fingers hold the child's fingers. Place your left hand on the joint. Start to make circular movements of the foot to the right, then to the left;
- one hand holds the baby by the heel, the other by the knee joint.
Use the knife to make accurate circular movements in both directions.
7. In order to relax the muscles that are strained after the massage, put both your hands under the baby's ass. Stroke it. Then, clasp your hands in the lock and swipe across the back of the legs, starting, as you understand, with priests and ending with stops.
8. We finish the massage session as well as we started - with light stroking movements.
And do not forget about charging: circular motions with both feet at the same time, an old checked "bike" - all these are also massage elements, only presented in a game form.