New research findings on massage for preterm babies

Following up on a groundbreaking study showing that premature newborns who are massaged gain more weight than non-massaged preemies, the researchers at Touch Research Institutes (TRI) at the University of Miami Medical School now have a good idea why.

In the study “Vagal (nervous system) activity, gastric motility, and weight gain in massaged preterm neonates,” published in July in The Journal of Pediatrics, the TRI team revisited a 1986 study that first revealed that massage therapy facilitates weight gain among preterm infants. Additional studies have yielded the same result. This time, researchers wanted to find out why. They set out to test whether moderate-pressure massage stimulates vagal (nervous system) activity, leading to more efficient food absorption through increased gastric motility and the release of food-absorption hormones, such as insulin.

In the study, which was conducted through the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 48 hospitalized preterm infants were randomly placed into a control group, a massage-therapy group, or a sham massage-therapy group. The massage-therapy group received three 15-minute periods of massage per day for five days.

The sham group received the same protocol, except light pressure was used during the massage strokes.

Measurements taken during the study included mean weight gain and calories consumed per day, heart rate, automatic nervous system function and gastric motility.

Data analysis revealed that weight gain was significantly related to changes in vagal (nervous system) tone during the massage, and changes in gastric motility after the massage. The massaged preterm infants gained 27-percent more weight than infants in the control group, even though they did not consume more calories. Their vagal (nervous system) activity peaked during the massage and remained higher than baseline through the 15-minute post-stimulation period.

“The change in vagal (nervous system) activity elicited by massage therapy was significantly related to weight gain during the 5-day treatment period. “