Health improvement of the child: Massage, stimulation of physical activity

• Massage

Correctly performed massage has a beneficial effect on the directly processed areas of the body, and on the whole organism. This is because the skin is an extremely complex organ. Massage not only affects the various structural layers, muscles, vessels, glandular apparatus of the skin, but also affects the central nervous system, with which the skin is connected through nerve endings, in large numbers embedded in its various layers.

Under the influence of massage the child grows better and develops. He increases the metabolism in tissues, improves blood formation regulation, increases blood circulation, improves nutrition of tissues: skin and muscles become elastic and elastic. Increases resistance of the body to infections. Extremely useful massage with prematurity and various diseases: with congenital malformations of the musculoskeletal system, hypotrophy, rickets, pneumonia and other diseases.

Since the massage has a different physiological effect on the body, it is very important to choose the right massage techniques, methods of their application and dosage. Otherwise, massage can only do harm. Therefore, before you massage a child, the mother must learn to perform his techniques under the supervision of a pediatrician and a physician in physiotherapy exercises.

When massaging children, the following methods are used: stroking, grinding, surface and deep kneading, effleurage and vibration.

Stroking. Gentle stroking has a calming effect on the nervous system, promotes muscle relaxation in hypertension, increases the tone of blood vessels, improves the appetite of the child. The baby adds weight, normalizes the functioning of the nervous system, the sluggish child becomes lively, active; excitable - more calm, he quickly falls asleep, and the duration of sleep increases.

When performing this massage, the palm or the back surface of the hands is slid over the child's body, touching it a little, as if caressing. The contact of the hand with the skin of the baby at the beginning and at the end of the reception should be so gentle that the child barely senses the touch, and stroking does not cause redness of the skin. Stroking begins and ends with a massage.

Trituration. This technique is considered as a variant of stroking, but it has its own characteristics and differs from stroking: when rubbed, the massage hand does not slip over the skin, and the skin moves along with the massage hand; massage movements can be performed both on the move and against the current of lymph and blood.

Rubbing has a positive effect not only on the skin, but also on the subcutaneous fatty tissue, as well as on superficially located muscles. The mobility of the tissues increases, the scars and adhesions develop during splices of the skin with the underlying tissues, the blood flow to the tissues increases, and in this connection their nutrition improves, the elasticity and contractility increase. Energetic rubbing along the nerve trunks or in the places where nerve endings leave the body surface causes a decrease in nervous excitability.

Rubbing is performed by the palm surface of the hand of one or both hands simultaneously. Both hands rubbing is done either separately - both hands move in opposite directions, or together - one brush lies on the other. Rubbing always precedes kneading.

Kneading. This is one of the most complex massage techniques. It consists of grasping, lifting (pulling) and pressing the tissues: grasping and alternately squeezing, squeezing and rubbing, shearing and stretching. When kneading is stronger than with grinding, the muscle tone, their contractile function, increases. This technique is considered as passive gymnastics for the muscles, so it is widely used for their functional insufficiency (a decrease in tone).

When kneading, the blood supply of the massaged area is increased; redness of the skin is observed, muscle nutrition improves, so that their mass, strength, contractility increase. Kneading is especially useful if the child has insufficient muscle development for some reason. It promotes the formation of proper posture and the timely development of movements in rickets.

Kneading is done with one or both hands. With both hands, the reception is performed as follows: both hands are applied with a palm surface, for example, on the hips, so that the thumbs lie on one side and the rest on the other side of the muscular shaft. Then with your fingers, gripping as deeply as possible the tissues on both sides of the thigh, squeeze and gradually squeeze them, moving in the direction to the trunk. When kneading with one hand, the same tricks are used.

Massage movements at the same time resemble the wringing of a liquid-impregnated sponge. Reception is most often used for massaging the limbs.

They start with light surface movements and only later go to deeper kneading of the tissues. Massage perform smoothly, rhythmically, without jerking and pulling muscles. Kneading should be done slowly: the slower it is, the stronger its influence. After kneading, you need to do stroking.

Vibration. The essence of reception consists in transferring the massed part of the body to oscillatory movements. The action of vibration is not limited only to the place of its application. It extends deep inside and around the periphery, causing a variety of responses of the body. Vibration can, for example, strengthen or restore lost deep reflexes, have a pronounced analgesic effect, improve the contractile function of muscles and nutrition of tissues.

When performing the reception, the hand of the masseur, without detaching from the massaged part of the body, produces various oscillatory movements, which must be performed strictly rhythmically. Vibration can be produced either stably - in one place, or labile - along a massaged surface.

During continuous vibration, the hand of the masseur and the massaged part of the body form a single whole. In the process of performing intermittent vibration, the hand of the masseur, when in contact with the massaged part of the body, moves away from it each time, as a result of which the vibrational movements become discontinuous and assume the character of individual shocks following one another. Both types of vibration can be performed by the surface of the terminal phalanx of one, two, three or four fingers (except the large one); the elbow of the palm; with the entire palm of your hand.

In infancy, vibration is infrequent, mainly with a massage of loose, over-fat babies. This causes a slight rhythmic shaking of the child's body.

Felting. A series of short rhythmic strokes alternately apply a back surface first one, then two, three and finally four fingers of both hands. Fingering improves blood circulation, nutrition of muscles, activity of more deeply located internal organs. This massage is recommended only to well-nourished children.

In addition to classical massage techniques, acupressure is also used: press one or two fingers onto certain reflexogenic zones; simultaneously fingers rotate. It is used both for weakened stretched muscles, and with increased muscle tone for the purpose of relieving muscle tension. At the same time, rapid, jerky and relatively strong pressure causes the excitation and tension of muscles. Slow, soft effects on these same zones, first with increasing pressure, vibration frequency, then stopping and then weakening the effect (without detachment from the massaged area), weaken the muscle tension in individual muscle groups.

Massaging the baby is very easy and gentle. During the massage of hands and feet, they are given a position of greatest peace - a slight half-bend. When massage legs avoid shocks in the knee cap, bypassing it from the outside and from below, do not massage the inner thighs, as it is extremely tender. When massage the stomach, you need to spare the liver area (right hypochondrium), with the back of the back - the area of the kidneys (lower back).

Thus, massage is the most effective way of preparing the infant's locomotor system for future physical activity. However, as the formation of the motor functions, this problem is increasingly solved due to independent movements. Therefore, massage as a means of training should be applied only up to six months of age. The use of hygienic and therapeutic massage is justified at a later date. Massage of newborns and infants is necessarily combined with passive and passive-active gymnastics, which is discussed further.

• Stimulation of motor activity

Physical exercises have a beneficial effect not only on the activities of all organs and systems of the child, but also on his motor activity, and hence, on his psychomotor development. Usually gymnastics with children begin to engage in the age of one and a half to two months. However, in the newborn motor activity can be stimulated in various ways. The main one is considered cold, because at a lower temperature, muscle contractions warm the child. Another way is to use the reflexes with which the baby is born and given to him to adapt to new conditions of life.

Gymnastics classes are held every day at a time convenient for the family. The room in which the classes take place is well ventilated, the air temperature in it should not exceed 22 ° C. Gymnastics begins 30 minutes before feeding or 45-60 minutes after it. You can not do gymnastics with a child and massage him before a night's sleep.

Gymnastics in combination with massage and hardening is especially beneficial for premature, physiologically immature babies, as well as for children with various deviations in development. Thanks to gymnastics and massage, many of these deviations are amenable to correction or pass without a trace, if the lessons with the child begin in the first weeks of life. Otherwise, deviations from development are exacerbated, harming the health, physical and mental formation of the child. For such kids special complexes of therapeutic gymnastics are developed. They are appointed by a doctor. Before you start to engage with the child, you need to get advice from a pediatrician and physician of physiotherapy, and if necessary, then go to the gym in the room of physiotherapy. Occupations with the child are periodically supervised by the doctor.

In premature infants under the influence of gymnastics, massage and hardening, muscle tone is normalized, unconditioned reflexes are restored. Since the exercises are accompanied by air baths, the ter-and-sea mechanisms are trained, the resistance of the child's organism to bacterial and viral infections increases. Preterm infants with whom they engage in exercise therapy quickly catch up with their full-term peers, not only in physical, but also in psycho-emotional development. They earlier start to smile, watch the moving objects, which also indicates that their health is approaching the norm.

Physical education of healthy premature babies is started from two to three weeks old, but only with the permission of a neurologist and physician of medical physical culture, which, taking into account the state of the child's organism, development, age, body weight at birth, prescribe exercises and massage, and later supervise the mother.

It is recommended to begin exercise therapy with exercises based on unconditioned reflexes. On the one hand, these are active exercises, because the child himself performs them. On the other hand, these are gentle exercises compared to the passive exercises that adults conduct themselves. Complexes of exercises for premature babies include treatment by position, therapeutic gymnastics, techniques of classical and acupressure. The general requirements for performing gymnastic exercises are the same as for full-term children. However, the air temperature in the room should be higher - up to 24 ° C. In the warm season, therapeutic gymnastics is done with an open window or window. Some exercises, if advised by a doctor, are performed two to three times a day.

During the training, do not forget to encourage the baby with affectionate words, encourage them. Remember that when you are engaged with a newborn, you are already educating him. The success of the baby in many ways will depend on your efforts, patience, benevolence and tenderness.

Healthy full-term children in the second half of life massage, as a rule, no longer do. But this procedure is not canceled for children of preterm, weakened, having hypotrophy, various deviations in development.

In gymnastic complexes, the law of continuity is observed: the next, more complex exercise the child will be able to perform when the previous one is mastered, the simpler one. In the seventh-eighth month of life, the baby begins to perform (with your help) new exercises: lift the trunk from the position on the abdomen or on the back; get the toy in the sitting position; actively crawl to toys on his knees and arms outstretched. The former exercises are carried out with a greater load.

In nine to ten months the baby is already confidently sitting, getting up, trying to walk in the crib, holding on to its walls. Therefore, in the gym complex exercises are introduced, which are performed in a sitting and standing position. In order for the child to strengthen the muscles of the hands and forearms, in exercises it is better to use the rings for which he holds. For the development of coordination of movements introduce exercises with the ball. The kid lovingly reaches out to him, takes it in his arms, holds, repels. Finally, the child walks with the support of an adult. For this, it is better to use reins, which can be made from the girdle from the robe. It is carried through the armpits. To drive a baby by the hand is not recommended, since this can cause a curvature of the spine. In eleven to twelve months the child can perform simple speech commands: "Raise the doll", "Get the typewriter", etc. The corresponding exercises are included in the gym.

Thanks to the maturation of motor centers in the brain, coordination of movements develops and the child becomes available performing more complex exercises - for example, "bridge". So the muscles of the neck, neck, trunk and legs are strengthened.

In the first year of the child's life, the parents need to worry about his future posture. Defects of posture in a latent form are formed in infancy and appear already in two or three years. They can arise if the child is worn on one hand, early start to plant, put on legs, drive, holding one hand, allow to sit for a long time. Insufficiently developed extensor muscles do not cope with static load, and this causes a defect in the bone system.

To strengthen large muscle groups that hold the trunk in the correct position, it is recommended that the gymnastics include reflex extension of the back, laying on the abdomen, half-turns of the trunk, retraction of the shoulders back, bending the back, bending the legs with bringing them to the stomach, moving to a sitting position from the prone position and back, back deflection - "hovering", intense arching on the side - "bridge", emphasis on hands with a raised body (supports the adult), getting the ball with support under the stomach and lower legs.

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