Weight Gain in Preterm Infants following Parent-Administered Vimala Massage: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Massage has been proposed as a way of facilitating development and growth of newborns through its effects on increasing blood flow, heart rate, digestion, and immunity. Massage might increase basal metabolism and nutrient absorption through endocrine effects such as increase in insulin and adrenaline and decrease in cortisol. Preliminary studies have suggested significant impact on weight gain with shortening of in-hospital stays of up to 6 days. We compared weight gain among preterm infants receiving Vimala massage plus usual care versus usual care alone. A randomized controlled trial was conducted. Sixty clinically stable preterm newborns with a corrected gestational age of 30 to 35 weeks receiving enteral nutrition in the hospital nursery were included. Half of them were assigned at random to receive Vimala massage twice daily for 10 days plus usual nursery care; the others received usual nursery care. Weight, head circumference, caloric intake, and nutritional method were recorded daily. Group characteristics were compared with analysis of variance, T test, and chi (2) test as appropriate. There were no differences between groups in gender, gestational age, initial weight, head circumference, and caloric intake and type of nutrition at baseline. Infants receiving massage had a larger weight gain versus the control group since the third day (188.2 +/- 41.20 g/kg versus 146.7 +/- 56.43 g/kg, P < 0.001). Hospital stay was shorter in infants receiving massage and usual nursery care (15.63 +/- 5.41 days versus 19.33 +/- 7.92 days, P = 0.03). The addition of parent-administered Vimala massage to usual nursery care resulted in increased weight gain and shorter hospital stay among clinically stable preterm newborns.

Aktuellt kunskapsläge om spädbarnsmassage — systematisk litteraturöversikt 2006–2011

“…I åtta studier (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22) med sammanlagt 450 deltagare har barnens vikttillväxt undersökts, och i sju av dem (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(21)(22) påvisades att spädbarnsmassage har en signifikant gynnsam effekt på barnens tillväxt, se tabell 2. Lahat (23) fann att barn som fått massage hade en signifikant lägre energiförbrukning, vilket kan vara en förklaring till den ökade vikttillväxten.…”

“…I sex studier (19,28,(30)(31)(32)(33) med sammanlagt 316 barn undersöktes effekt av spädbarnsmassage på barnens hälsa. Parametrar för detta har varit antal dagar på sjukhus samt förekomst av diarré eller annan sjukdom.…”

“…I alla studier ses signifikant positiva resultat med spädbarnsmas-sage. Kortare sjukhustid uppvisades i fyra av studierna (19,28,30,33). Fullgångna barn med gulsot fick snabbare förbättrade bilirubinvärden efter massage (31), och barn på barnhem i Ecuador (32) hade lägre risk att drabbas av diarré eller annan sjukdom när de fått massage.…”

Massage Therapy in Preterm Infants

“…A number of studies in the last 2 decades have suggested that massage and/or kinesthetic stimulation assists preterm infants with improved weight gain and shortens the length of the hospital stay [1,2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The effect of short term (5-10 days) in hospital massage was evident at 6 month follow up.…”

The Effect of Massage on Body Weight Improvement in 0 - 12 Month-Old Babies

“…The development of massage intervention for baby has significantly risen since The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Under nutrition in 2008 (Bhutta et al, 2013). However, the most recent Cochrane reviewed that no significant evidence proofed the affectivity of baby massage intervention to enhance baby weight, but some study showed that by administering the baby massage regularly would stimulate baby's tactile and kinesthetic and increase the baby weight until 53 percent (Gonzalez et al, 2009). Furthermore, the baby who experienced massage intervention regularly compared to a baby in the regular intervention as control group could stay alert and active, less crying, and had lower cortisol levels in salivary gland which indicated relax (Massaro, Hammad, Jazzo, & Aly, 2009).…”