Massage served to reduce stress behaviors, increase weight gain and
increase scores on the Brazelton motor and orientation scales for cocaineexposed
preterm infants (Wheeden et al., 1993). Massage was also found to
reduce spasticity in infants suffering from Cerebral Palsy (Hernandez-Reif
et al., 2005). Orphaned infants suffer many of the same attachment issues as
preterm infants (Kim, Shin, White-Traut, 2003) and massage has been found
to moderate those issues in this group of high-risk infants as well. Overall,
the research seems to support using touch as a low-cost medical intervention
for preterm infants, infants of depressed mothers, and other high-risk infants
and their families