The Importance of Touch

Transcription

1 The Importance of Touch A Guide For Parents And Caregivers Touch and Growth Learning Through Touch Reading Baby s Cues

2 A Century of Caring Johnson & Johnson s commitment to maternal and newborn care has been at the heart of the corporation for over 100 years. As the corporation expanded to become the world s largest broad-based healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson understood that to make a difference in maternal and child health, it needed a distinct organization one dedicated to improving the lives of children and their families worldwide. Reinforced by the Johnson & Johnson Credo that states, We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services, the Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute, L.L.C. (JJPI) was established in JJPI s mission is to improve the lives of children and their families and contribute to a nurturing and healthy environment for children. By working in partnership with healthcare professionals and international organizations, educational initiatives are developed that: Improve care for mothers and newborns during pregnancy, birth and the first 3 months of life Optimize child health and development of children 0-5 years of age Protect children who have been impacted by disaster situations. 2005, 1998, Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute, L.L.C.

3 The Importance of Touch A Guide For Parents And Caregivers CONTENTS Introduction... 1 A Touch Can Speak Louder Than Words... 3 Bonding With Your Baby... 4 The Relationship Between Touch and Growth... 4 A Touch Says, I Care... 5 Learning Through Touch... 6 Mother s Touch, Father s Touch... 7 Reading Your Baby s Cues... 8 A Guide to Infant Massage... 8 This booklet for parents was developed from the Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Round Table Scientific Conference on: Advances in Touch New Implications in Human Development.

4 The Importance of Touch I N T R O D U C T I O N The role of touch in growth, development and our relationships with each other has been the focus of more than 20 years of my clinical practice and research. Touching and being touched are among the most important experiences in life. From the prenatal period to our elderly years, touch influences our lives in profound ways. Being massaged during pregnancy reduces obstetric and postnatal complications. During childbirth, women who were massaged felt less pain and spent less time in labor than mothers who were not massaged. Infants benefit from touch therapy in many ways, including enhanced growth and development. Massage can help children overcome emotional trauma and improve their condition in diseases such as asthma and diabetes. Studies in adults have shown that touch therapy can decrease stress, decrease pain and improve immune function. Grandparents who massaged babies had lower levels of stress hormones and made fewer trips to the doctor s office. Thus, touch is important to all of us. Its value in health, development, and healing should encourage us to make touch an important part of our daily lives. Tiffany Field, PhD Director, Touch Research Institutes Miami, Florida, USA 1

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6 The Importance of Touch A Touch Can Speak Louder Than Words Think about the times when you ve felt sad or alone. Didn t a hug from a friend make you feel better? Or remember when you fell in love and you felt warmth when you held your partner s hand and put your arms around one another? The feelings we experience from touching and being touched begin long before we are born. While growing within our mother s body we felt safe and warm, and could feel things happening in the world around us. And our mothers felt excited and reassured every time we moved, kicked or hiccuped. ways, touch was our first language a language scientists are now beginning to understand. Being touched in a loving way can help small babies grow stronger and troubled children feel less anxious. Touch can also help improve the health of people with a wide variety of medical conditions. It s easy to see why a touch can speak louder than words. Later on, touching and being close to our mothers and fathers helped us learn to communicate and understand each other so that Mom and Dad knew when we were happy, or sad or when we needed a hug. In many 3

7 Bonding With Your Baby Early physical contact and touching are so important that in many hospitals and birthing centers, newborns are placed on the mother s chest or abdomen to give them the most skin-to-skin contact. This skinto-skin contact is sometimes called Kangaroo Care. During this special time, the touch between mother and baby brings them emotionally close a process known as bonding, or attachment. Fathers also bond with their babies and become strongly attached to them. Bonding between parents and babies seems to be a natural instinct, although the way a mother was touched during labor can affect the way she touches her new baby. John Kennell, MD, and Marshall Klaus, MD, studied new mothers throughout the labor process. They compared mothers who received support from a labor partner with mothers who underwent labor by themselves. Drs Kennell and Klaus observed that mothers who were actively touched were more likely to touch, communicate and bond with their newborns. In addition, labor tended to be easier and there were fewer deliveries by cesarean section. For parents and babies, touch says, I care. The Relationship Between Touch and Growth Your loving touch does more than comfort your newborn; it can actually help him grow. The effect of touch on growth was first discovered in premature infants. These tiny babies are often separated from their parents and isolated in incubators. They are touched and cuddled much less than full-term babies. Tiffany Field, PhD, 4

8 of the Touch Research Institutes at the University of Miami School of Medicine, felt these babies missed an important contact other babies received. So she decided to find out what would happen if premature babies received the touching they often missed. Dr Field compared a group of premature babies who were massaged with a group who were not massaged. The massaged infants were carefully massaged on the head, back, arms and legs every day for 10 days in the hospital s newborn intensive care unit. Dr Field discovered that the massaged infants gained more weight and were more active, alert and responsive than the babies who weren t massaged. Massaged infants were ready to go home with their parents an average of 6 days earlier than the other infants. And when they were 8 months old, massaged babies had gained more weight and were more fully developed than babies who were not massaged. Your loving touch is vital to your baby s growth. Touching occurs during everyday activities such as feeding, bathing and rocking. In addition, Dr Field recommends that parents try to regularly massage their babies. To learn more about how to massage your baby, turn to A Guide to Infant Massage on page 8 of this booklet. A Touch Says, I Care Touch is important for healthy emotional development and communication between parents and babies. For example, Eskimo babies tend to be calm and cry very little. This is because they communicate directly through touch while being carried skin-to-skin on their mothers 5

9 backs. For example, a baby lets Mom know she is hungry by rooting and sucking on her back. This quiet communication is remarkable for many of us, babies communicate by crying. Could it be that babies will cry less if they re touched more? New research seems to point in that direction. Ronald Barr, MD, of the Child Development Program at Montreal Children s Hospital found that increasing mother-baby contact reduces crying. He asked a group of mothers to carry their babies for at least 3 hours a day. (This was longer than the 1 to 2 hours most mothers carried their infants.) He then compared their crying patterns with a group of babies who were carried the typical 1 to 2 hours daily. The result: Babies who were carried more, cried less especially at 6 weeks of age, when babies usually cry the most. In fact, the amount of time these babies cried decreased during the 3 months of the study. Some parents do not pick up their babies as often as possible because they are afraid they will spoil them nothing could be further from the truth! Each time you pick up your baby, you let her know that you care and that you understand her needs. So don t hesitate to hold your crying baby. Carry her on your shoulder and sing her a lullaby. Stroke her head, tenderly rub her back and let her know you ll always be there. Learning Through Touch Your baby needs to be touched by those who love and care for him in order to grow and develop. He also needs to touch and explore the world around him. Your baby learns some of his first things through touch the warmth of your skin, the beat of your heart, the 6

10 feeling of being cared for and loved. As he grows, touch remains important for learning and exploring. Watch as your baby begins to explore, to reach out and hold your hand, to play with his toes, or to snuggle in his blanket. While very young, he will use his entire hand to hold his favorite toys and other objects. Later, as his coordination improves, he will use his thumb and forefinger like little tweezers. You can help your baby s new grasping skills by encouraging him to pick up and hold nearby toys. Then, when your baby becomes a toddler, you can give him a variety of textures to touch. For example, take your toddler for a walk outdoors and have him touch a leaf, a stone and the bark of a tree. Try to include many different textures: soft and hard, rough and smooth, angular and rounded. As your toddler gets older, play more detailed touch games with him. One game is to guess what s in a bag by touch only does a ball hidden inside a bag feel different from a toy car? Mother s Touch, Father s Touch Most new babies are fascinated by people, and yours probably will be too. She ll be attracted to friendly faces and will be able to recognize familiar people her parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents and others who are important in her life. She ll also be able to tell if she s being touched playfully or tenderly. She will be able to tell whether Mom or Dad is holding her, because each parent has their own way of touching. Your baby enjoys variety in the different kinds of touches she receives. And it s good that all her special people have their own way of holding her and playing with her. 7

11 Research has shown that when mothers touch babies, they are usually soothing and calming. Moms most often touch gently they stroke softly, rock slowly and hold their babies tenderly. Fathers, on the other hand, tend to engage in more physical forms of touch they bounce babies on their knees, hold them playfully in the air or roll around on the floor with them. Your baby benefits from these two different styles of touch. Together they contribute to your infant s healthy development. Reading Your Baby s Cues As you spend more time with your baby, you ll learn to read his likes, dislikes, desires and emotions. You ll learn the best time for cuddling, the best time for play and the best time for relaxing. When this happens, you and your baby become more in tune with each other, and the two of you grow closer together. Sometimes too much playing or cuddling can make your baby cranky. If your infant seems fussy or uninterested, keep your touching to a minimum. Maybe your baby just wants to be held quietly. Or maybe he needs some time alone to unwind. In this case, give your baby a rest and check in a little later he will let you know when he is ready for attention! A Guide to Infant Massage It s wonderful to get in touch with your baby through massage. Massage gives the two of you special loving time together, and it s great for your baby s growth and development. The following massage is used by Dr Field in her work with premature infants. It lasts about 15 minutes. 8

12 Don t worry if you have time for only 5 or 10 minutes; even a short massage is good for your baby. To begin a massage, first find a warm room where you and your baby can spend some quiet time together. Make sure that your hands are warm you can rub them together if they feel cold. Using some baby oil makes the massage feel especially soothing. If you like, play background music to help the two of you relax. Start with your baby lying on his stomach. Gently rub your hands back and forth six times on each of the following areas for about 1 minute in each area: Now turn your baby over onto his back so that he is facing you. Move each of his arms gently, flexing it and then straightening it, and then move each of his legs. Exercise each arm and each leg in this way, and then both legs, as if he were pedaling a tiny bicycle, for a total of 5 minutes. To finish your baby s massage, turn him back on his stomach and repeat the first sequence. Throughout the massage, remember to be sensitive and responsive to your baby. Learn to recognize when your baby tells you that he s not interested or that he s had enough. 1. From the top of your baby s head to his neck 2. From his neck across his shoulders 3. From his upper back to his waist 4. From his thigh to his foot and back to his thigh, on each leg 9 5. From his shoulder to his hand and back to his shoulder, on each arm

13 Your baby might do the following to tell you he would rather be doing something else: turn his head away wrinkle his forehead suck in his cheeks grimace And of course, fussing and crying are very definite ways of saying, I m tired. As you and your baby work together, you ll gradually find a routine that works best for both of you. And with all of your love and attention focused on him, you and your baby will be truly in touch. 10

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15 FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: PHONE: In US (toll-free) JNJ-LINK ( ) Outside US FAX: In US (toll-free) JNJ-FAXX ( ) Outside US MAIL: Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute, L.L.C., Customer Care, P.O. Box 579, Calverton, New York USA

16 TOUCH: Other Resources COMING SOON Skin to Skin: The Mother/Baby Package Professional Monograph Infant Massage: A Step-By-Step Guide Fold-out Poster Pregnancy Massage: A Step-By-Step Guide Fold-out Poster The materials available in our Touch Program demonstrate the benefits of touch on the health of infants and children, as well as for the mother during pregnancy, labor and the postpartum period. This unique program is supported by research that is reviewed in these materials and translated for practical application. For downloadable versions, see Touch and Massage in Early Child Development Professional Publication TCH05-B1