Quite often, babies in the first months of life suffer from intestinal colic (here is a detailed article). As a rule, babies who are not yet three months old suffer from this trouble; colic often begins to bother them, starting from the second week of life. In order to cope with the problem, various methods and means are recommended, including medications, placing the child in an acute period of colic in a warm bath. One of the most effective ways to help a newborn baby with colic is massage.
Tummy massage for colic
If your baby is suffering from colic, it is recommended to massage the tummy before each feeding. It is recommended to warm up the stomach for a few minutes before the massage. To do this, you need to warm up the diaper (you can iron it with a hot iron or hold it on a warm battery), then you need to put the folded diaper on the baby's stomach, cover it with your hands so that your hands clasp the tummy area and hold the diaper on your stomach for a while. After a while, you can remove the diaper, warming the stomach.
Massage for colic is recommended without lubricating your hands with oil or baby cream. The reason for this is that the use of a cream or oil strengthens the adhesion of the skin of the palms to the skin of the baby's tummy, and can lead to too much effort during the massage. If your mom's hands are a little damp, they can be lightly powdered with talcum powder or baby powder.
After that, you can begin tummy massage.
1. First, gently stroke your stomach, gradually increasing the pressure, moving on to light pressure. To do this, you need to fold your palms like a "house" so that the convex part of the "house" is in the area of the baby's navel, and gently perform pressing movements with the ribs of the palms along the edge of the abdomen. In this case, special attention should be paid to bypassing the area of the right hypochondrium - there is a liver, which in babies protrudes slightly from under the lower rib. Then you need to make several pressing movements from right to left (this is how the large intestine goes in the baby's body). After each movement, you need to perform slow, soothing stroking movements.
2. The next movement is often referred to as the "water mill". With your palms, you need to lightly stroke the tummy from top to bottom along its central part, from the ribs to the groin area. After several such movements, one hand is placed on the tummy, and with the other, the oblique muscles of the abdomen are stroked on one side, then on the other.
3. Further, counter stroking is performed. In order to perform it, you need to run your hands along the stomach in this way: the left hand goes up, the right hand goes down, in the direction of the large intestine. After that, a circular stroking on the abdomen is performed, with one hand, then with two hands.
4. U-shaped stroking of the tummy is also effective. It can be carried out in three stages: first, with the right palm, you need to stroke the baby's tummy from the left from top to bottom, then a "corner" movement is performed from the right hypochondrium to the left, then from top to bottom. After that, stroking the tummy in the form of the letter P is performed: the hand goes up the right side of the tummy, then from right to left, after that - along the left side of the tummy from top to bottom.
Such stroking movements when massage newborns with colic help to expel gas from the large intestine. After performing the massage, it is recommended to help the baby release gases, for this you need to press the baby's legs to his tummy and hold them for 20-40 seconds. You can also perform the "bike" movement, alternately holding the legs against the abdomen. At the same time, the kid begins to push. You need to complete the massage with circular stroking movements.
During the massage for colic, it is very important to perform movements in the correct direction, clockwise. This corresponds to the position of the intestines in the body and the movement of the hands along the tummy in this direction contributes to the fact that gases, the main cause of colic, move through the intestines, and the discomfort caused by colic weakening.
Knowing the basic massage techniques and understanding how to massage for colic will help parents gain confidence that they can help their baby to cope with this difficult problem more easily.
Here are some more ways to relieve your baby of severe colic. - how to help a child from colic
On the topic of massage:The correct massage for a newborn baby at 1 month
