Well, hello, welcome back. I'm here with the lovely Rebecca Bronk, who's a massage therapist who specializes in baking master edge. And we're going to talk you through some of the basics. And well actually, Rebecca is going to talk you through some of the basics with baby massage and where to start and what oils and what to do. But I thought before we got started, we might get to know her a little bit. So because you're a proud mom of two people, yes.

How old are they now? Kirby's my oldest son just turned three. All those years went really quickly. Yes. Yeah, but you've been a massage instructor with babies for many years now, haven't you? Yeah.

So I've been massaging for, you know, Bran 11 years now. And specialized in pre and postnatal care about seven years ago and also along with baby massage. And both my children have had massage right the way through and I expect we will be requesting massage and the 18 and coming home from school. Like I need a massage mom. So I have massage every day. Um, as much as I would like a massage myself.

I don't generally get one but it's a very big part of our house and a very big part of our lives. Yes. And do you find that it's more beneficial in bonding and connection with the children? Yes, sorry. There's so many benefits to baby massage but also those skills you can use right away through a lot. So you just change what you're doing as they get older.

Yes, perhaps and adapt. So, Vic, what got you into baby mess much real There was a big gap I was noticing. So seeing pregnant women or some who are having fertility treatment and they get pregnant, see them right through the pregnancy. And there's this massive build up. As every mom watching this would know, to the pregnancy finishing and the first and then it's like, now I've got this baby and I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm not sleeping and my partner, jelling.

I've lost my mojo with everything. And, and again, I don't know why I'm doing this baby. So I found there was a big link missing. And, for me, massage was a big part of filling that gap of feeling that I didn't really know what to do. I was looking in my baby Bible. I wasn't really sure if I was doing things right but every time I would mess up My oldest Coby, I found that we just connected.

And so once I've done the course, I hadn't actually studied the course then. So this was just an intuitive thing, I guess through my work. But once I've done the course, I realized how how it is like missing link. And it creates that connection between mother and baby particularly, but also dads, siblings, you know, you can, you can work with them to teach them little basic strokes that they can do on their baby brother or sister. And so it really, it creates a harmonious environment and it helps to calm the baby down as well as particularly from mom helps to boost oxytocin. So those that sometimes are struggling with breastfeeding, she's hot.

But it does help to get get those good hormones flowing. And so oxytocin being allowed hormone, you know, it just helps you with bonding with you. Bye Be as well. That's true. And I guess it's about creating, you know, this is why we're doing it. And week two is to create an environment where you feel like you can, you know, give this baby loving touch and connect with it.

You know, there isn't a right and a wrong with massage is just about, you know, getting started. Yeah, well that's true, although there are definitely different factors that come into play. I mean, as adults we, I know personally, I cure from so many don't wake, and most of us do love massage. With babies. It's a little different and we're working on that nurturing touch, but without stimulating them as such. So we asked him, me laying them you know why we were helping neuro development and developing neural pathways while they were just understanding that these fingers connect with the rest of their body and things like that all to do with touch.

But, you know, it just it comes back to really that that connection with them. Having that time to spend with them as well. Yeah. And I guess you know, even though you'd love a massage, probably wouldn't like fun at two in the morning. Someone starting with you fate. Yes.

You'll be like, how about you get off? And I guess you know, as you said, there's right and wrong ways to do different strokes for different age groups as well. And it's important for parents to know what strikes me. Yeah. And where it's appropriate for babies at certain ages. And particularly when we're looking at you know, the first few when it's really gentle.

It's really your connection with your baby and just getting your head around that faster, tiny, huh? And they are fragile, but just learning, learning what your baby's telling you. So baby massage is great because there's all these nonverbal cues that they're giving you and they won't read that in the book. No, I read that on the forum. It's about spending that time With him getting to know your baby and trusting your own instincts. We're going to get towards that in a minute.

But I thought so Becca will give us a little bit of a demo on where to start. But the world of oils, creams, lotions, potions. Now considering we have a little tiny, fresh two week old baby who's still shitting all of its skin. So they've got very fresh skin. What should they start with? So I would really suggest and it really coming from two weeks from birth to two weeks, right three to 10 years old, what you're putting on your children, you need to be happy that they will ingest it because there's a lot of finger saying I won't demonstrate that foot stalking.

Yes. All sorts of things that go on they you know your hands, your fingers will go in the mouth. So you have to be happy that what you put on them they're going to ingest. Yes. So cold pressed. massage oil are the best Okay, cold pressed basically means it hasn't been heat treated Okay, so that changes the the molecules are telling you the makeup I guess of the oil.

Do you want it as pure as possible so cold pressed organic, clearly, we know what organic means pesticide free, and you you want it to be a very nourishing oils thing. Even for babies who have got that flaking skin around that two weeks or those that are past that maybe you're finding that they've got you know, eczema, sometimes behind the knees or in the joints, armpits, all that sort of stuff was coming in that's gonna suit that so I'm black sesame oil is wonderful or sesame oil. apricot kernel oil is another good one and all it really depends what you can what you can find and what I would definitely say to say to parents is what you're currently a baby doesn't necessarily mean that you would cook with it. So just reaching in the kitchen. Come on. Whoa I definitely would not say go the other way.

So be selective with what you put on your children and you've probably seen as well you know, you go to the baby expires where you get all these baskets from friends and family that have you know, particular brands which may contain mineral oils, which are not very good for us as people. Studies have shown. You've also got essential oils in them which are fabulous. But I wouldn't say two weeks, really in the first few months, I normally as an aromatherapist, as well recommend after about nine months. Anything that's got or you know, essential oils in Okay, so some brands are beautiful, and they smell great, but if you can open the lead and you think, wow, I can really smell that you can just imagine what your baby is experiencing with that. And we want them to still smell us.

Yeah, we want them to do smell Mom and Dad. Yes. And not have too much interruptions. Yeah, that sense. smell. Excellent well that's important when you go through all the oils that you've got, and you know most of the time in here, bigger brands, you know, unfortunately they do have a lot of fragrance a lot of the potential mineral oil so it might be that you do have to take a quick trip to the health food shop or the chemists with a stock chemists generally don't have a huge range and I have noticed that they do have more of the scented ones.

Okay, you know, there's some brands that chemists or stock that are beautiful, but I would definitely say from an older age group just knowing how strong they can be. But health food shops are great. Otherwise online, you know, there's some great oil companies out there that sell just plain, you know, as I said cold pressed organic massage. Okay, yeah. Beautiful. Well, we'll have some, some links and some resources on the website for you to have a look at as well.

Relating to all of that, but I think we might get back to show us a little bit of a demo on how to how to get this started. Alright, so when we start baby method, just a few key things that are quite important. The first one is that we would always mess up on the store. So the main reason being that if once your baby gets a little bit older and they stopped moving about all of a sudden one day, they'll decide that they can roll and so if you're on a bed or on the change table, you might get a nasty surprise but the safest place for babies on the floor to make sure that you're comfortable, we always take off all of our jewelry, any rings, anything like that and give yourself a cushion or something that you can sit on which is going to make you comfortable as well.

No key component of making sure that your baby massage session each day or each week goes to plan Is that the room is warm, so we need to have warm hands, we need to have warm oil if you can, so heating up the oil and just you know, a glass of hot water that's away from your baby. warm it up for a little while to warm hands warm oils to any touching your baby in a womb room. So, just you know, room temperature isn't quite enough when we actually taking clothes off and disrobing, babies they can get quite cold. So I really hate that space up. So warmth is the key. So the oils that we used, which we briefly talked about before so sweet almond is another good man and sesame or so they both quite warming oils and sweet almond is a really nice one for any of the eczema or inflammation that might be going on on the skin as well.

But today I'm going to discuss to me because this baby's a little bit dry and needs just a little bit more nourishment. So what Babies are really tiny. So if we're looking in that first six to eight weeks, about particularly for this session, maybe around the first two weeks, it's quite interesting for them to get on the floor and be exposed. So they've had all this time in the womb, where they've been all curled up and, and protected. So it can be nice just to bring in we start with the cord is just like containment holes. So we bring baby's hands in and we can come down quite close to them, we can do little reassuring rock.

We can shoot them or talk to them about massage and we're gonna do a little bit of massage now. And it feels really nice and easy, really calm and quiet tone in the voice. So if at any point babies are feeling a little bit apprehensive, you can just use these little containment holes. And then because they don't have a lot of awake time, and they're about two weeks old, you've got a fairly small window of opportunity. So it might be after a fade, you might leave in about 20 minutes, half an hour, and then you might quickly do 10 minutes of massage. So nice place to start, which is always touched fairly regularly is the legs to be lifted up, we do nappy changes, while still this sort of stuff.

With the legs, we would just, again, come in and say, Would you like a massage, and then also just to ask them, maybe to rub your hands in front TPR. And at this time, they're really not going to know what you're talking about. Right? It's important that you're looking at their nonverbal cues and these will develop over maybe between two and eight weeks at this stage, it might take a bit longer. So that's, again, those neural pathways. So I've been learning about what you're saying and what you're then going into do their feelings touch.

So all these important little factors that come into the fact that one day, you'll say, Would you like a massage? And they'll be talking and saying Yes, definitely. So we start from there, we ask them permission, we ask them if they would like us to touch. So then when we get somewhere, and we would rub it on the lake, okay? Now I tend to kill their legs. Besides, they tend to be a little bit like a little ball.

So it's a nice opportunity to just stretch the legs out, get some nice massages on there, and this might actually be all that you do. Okay? So this is just called what they call an effleurage strike. It's just gentle rubbing. So we use gentle pressure. So we do need some pressure, but not enough that you would feel that it's making them uncomfortable and you as a mom or dad would know, you'll know what's going to be too much.

It's just an instinctive thing. So we would start off has a bit just with this effort rush in because they've got these tiny legs who'd only use two fingers. So we start doing just some little circles, okay, so we work often around the back of the leg. If you're game enough to not have a nappy on, then you can go up and around the invisible glutes as well. Again, a lot of the time, it's not really something that comes out at you, which is not very exciting. So I always have a cloth, maybe a nearby or a nappy underneath, so you can just block that as it escapes.

We've come down around the knees, either side of the shins, and then just underneath so it's important to notice where I'm holding my hand, I'm supporting the ankle, but I'm not putting pressure on the court because if you touch a baby's put, you'll notice that they kill their toes up. So that's that little plantar reflex. So you want to avoid that because they'll start getting very uncomfortable if you're touching the bottom of the floor. All the time. Okay, so then we would support and we just come in a really nice little technique is just rolling the legs. And this one can take a bit of practice.

But it does, I found become a fan favorite, my six year olds do likes it and he has a big link that comes up here. Sorry, I still have to do this. But it's a really nice one, it does help to stimulate the inguinal nodes, the lymph nodes as well. So this is a indirectly good for the lymphatic system as well. Okay, so really basic strokes, we might just finish again with you can either go up towards the body so we could start from Danny the feet up towards the center of the body. If your baby's a little bit agitated or haven't been sleeping, well then just stick with that down with stroke.

Okay. So this is based on Vedic massage on Indian massage where we're working from the center of the body. Down to the feet or down to the fingers. Okay? So that just gives you a little bit of an idea and we would obviously then repeat that on the other lake. If your baby's still looking happy, okay?

So both legs down at this stage, this is a really important part and you're paying attention to your baby, you've done their leg then really, these first few weeks two legs might be all that you do. For some babies who start to have a bit more tummy troubles. Massage can definitely help because you're indirectly helping that neuro development but also helping the nerve development within the body so it's, you know, touches the sensory in so touching anywhere on the body was to me like the nervous system as well. So things like reflux or you know, spills gesina moustache will help in all those respects. In the background, we're not massaging the figures directly and we're not always having to massage the tummy either. So, if they are a little bit older and you think they're getting a few tummy ache, you can massage through the lower part of the back so maybe the spicy can stay.

We will not always start from their right side. Okay. So if we're working through the digestive system and just really relieving some of that lower backache, so down, Brian can't see this baby say combat. You can feel it on yourself right down in the lower part of your back just on the top of your glutes. There's the sacred so often with babies if we're, if we're massaging right down low, and it's almost need to pull the nappy down but between just massage with the palm of your hand so with the section that feels really nice if they've got a sore tummy That can feel fantastic and it feels really nice on grownups as well. And even just all over the back, you know, you can do nice, gentle pressure, just down the back.

And that's very relaxing. You know, the babies, they get a bit older without them, they'll hold on to your hand, they can bring their lips up, and this is just a really nurturing position for them to be okay. But the mums and dads as well make sure that you're not down like these, you know, you're getting hunched over and you're actually getting sore so he'll require massage. So try and keep your back nice and straight. You know, lean over, use this time to support yourself and make sure that you're in a comfortable position from the very start. Okay, Teddy's babies enjoy his moustache, and then we can just say, Well done, so we can talk to them about how long they are.

Time I can talk to him about how why they are and then we can say we all finish. So hopefully that's giving you a little bit of an idea about the basics of baby methods.