Rickets in Infants - Simple massage for your baby

Rickets is a serious disease in children, caused by deficiency of vitamin D. Breast milk contains only small amounts of this vitamin, and infants whose diet consists of just breast milk are more likely to develop this disease.

Vitamin D is the only vitamin that can be both acquired through food and made by the body itself through ultraviolet radiation from the sun. That is why it is so important to expose an infant to direct sunlight for at least 30-40 min a day or even longer if the weather is agreeable.

As with any disease, rickets is easier to prevent than to treat. The good news is it is treatable, although if treatment begins on later stages, not all bone deformities caused by rickets may be completely reversed. An age of 2 month is the most critical for the development of the disease.

First signs of rickets:

• Your baby is fussy, timid, cries a lot for no reason, and twitches in its sleep.
• Your baby's skin becomes pale.
• At the end of a feeding, the baby's forehead, nose and sometimes the entire face, are all covered with tiny beads of sweat.
• Excess sweating during sleep so a pillow becomes wet.
• Bald spot appears on the back of a baby's head.

The prevention and treatment of rickets is complex and does not consist of taking vitamins only. Special attention should be paid to baby's diet, which must include fresh vegetable and fruit juices as early as possible. Don't be afraid to expose your baby to fresh air and don't forget about such physical activity as simple exercises and massage.

Many parents underestimate the importance of the latter; however exercises and massage help your baby to grow healthy and happy, not to mention more wonderful moments you spend with your child. Human touch is, probably, the strongest of all senses, and the most important one, especially for children up to 1 year. Studies show that social development of the babies who were talked to but never picked up is much slower then that of the kids that spent reasonable amount of time in their parents' arms. Giving a simple massage to your newborn is a win-win situation and will bring many benefits to both of you.

The best time to start massages to your baby is when the infant is 6-7 weeks old. The massage is done every day at the same time one hour after the feeding and only if a baby is not upset. The temperature in the room should be 20-22C.

Place a blanket on a flat surface like a table and put your baby on its back. Gently stroke the baby's body with your palm. Next: holding baby's fist in one hand with the fingers of your other hand start lightly pressing on the palm making circular motions from outer part of the palm to its center. Slowly bend and unbend the baby’s fingers one after another. Do the same with the other fist. Proceed with massaging infant's arms going up and down and then move to massage baby’s legs and feet.

Turn an infant on its belly. Now it's time to work with the baby's back. Caress it with the back of your palm going up and with the palm going down.

Turn the baby on its back again and with your right palm rub its belly in circular motion going clockwise.

Repeat every movement 4-6 times and talk to your little one during all the process in a kind, soothing tone.

Babies are prone to all kinds of skin irritations, including allergies. Each one of those irritations disturbs an infant making him fussy and restless. And every mother knows that it spells "sleepless nights." That is why parents need to be very selective when choosing massage oils for their little darlings. You will need a product that would help to heal already existing skin breaks (if any) and prevent it from happening again. Ask your pediatrician for advice and always read the product's label for ingredients. However, the best choice, and the healthiest one, in my opinion, would be using

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