The Day My Baby Went to College
|
|
|
My wiggly
son eats his name tag while getting a
massage from Mom.
|
Concord, NC,
October 20, 2006
— On Tuesday, October 17
2006, my baby went to college. I made sure he had
food and a backpack full of supplies. Although it
was a rainy day outside, I didn't cry. This wasn't
the first day of his freshman year at a state
university, but rather his first day of infant
massage training at our local Cabarrus College of
Health Sciences.
My nine-month old son
and I ventured into
Cabarrus College of Health Sciences (CCHS) and
made our way to the classroom where Infant Massage
Instructors were waiting along with Shelby
Snyder-Kirby, an OTA instructor at CCHS with more
than 20+ years experience and coordinator of this
training. Nancy Green, coordinator for the
Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program at
CCHS, introduced us to the massage instructor,
Juliana Dellinger-Bavolek, located through the
national organization's web site. After a few
moments, we were invited to sit on the large mat in
the floor of a dimly lit room where we were joined
by another mother and her infant. The instructor and
other OTA students joined us with dolls for
demonstrations, bottles of massage oil, and pillows
and towels for the babies.
 |
Instructors,
parents, and students gather around to learn
the age-old techniques of infant massage.
|
Being somewhat of an
“academic type” myself, I was interested in the
research that has demonstrated the benefits of
infant massage, especially in premature babies and
the use of massage in orphanages in other countries.
Infant massage has many health benefits to the
child, including improved weight gain, enhanced
development, reducing irritability, and improving
sleep, not to mention help with digestion,
constipation, and even sinus congestion. For the
parent – mother or father – performing the massage,
it provides a quiet time to relax and bond with the
child while slowing down from the hurried pace of
today's world.
As students and
parents followed the instructor's techniques, the
babies in the room began to calm down. Faculty,
students, alumni, and hospital employees were all
part of the mix that had gathered to learn these
age-old techniques. One of these techniques was
called “milking,” where you hold either the baby's
hand or foot, and start up at the joint with a
“C”-shaped hand, and gently squeeze down the limb as
if you were milking the arm or leg.
Over the three-day
training, eight (8) students received training at
CCHS, and 14 parents brought in their own children
to learn massage techniques.
The hour passed too
quickly as our training session came to a close.
Although my son and I did not leave the college that
day with a diploma in hand, all parents received a
book to take home that reviewed each stroke or
technique. There is also a helpful web site for
Infant Massage USA --
www.infantmassageusa.org -- the US chapter of
the International Association of Infant Massage,
which has chapters in 31 countries. These resources
will prove helpful at home when I cannot remember
how best to ease a rumbly tummy with infant massage.
For more information
on infant massage or an upcoming training session,
visit the web site above or contact Shelby
Snyder-Kirby, COTA/L, at Cabarrus College of Health
Sciences at 704.783-3511. For more information on
the Occupational Therapy Assistant program at CCHS,
please contact the program coordinator, Nancy Green,
at 704.783-3599.
