Baby Shiatsu with Tamsin Grainger

When I was talking to Mike Craske about shiatsu, he remarked that some practitioners used shiatsu on babies and children, so I decided to talk to Tamsin Grainger, who has been practicing baby shiatsu for 9 years on young clients and her own two children. If you live in or near Edinburgh (Scotland), you can also attend a course with Tamsin to learn how to do baby-shiatsu on your own children.

Here’s what Tamsin had to say:

“When I completed my shiatsu practitioner training in 1989, my first daughter was a year old, and I started doing shiatsu on her. I didn’t know anyone else who was doing it, and there weren’t any books on it, so I improvised using my basic shiatsu knowledge. I was also seeing adult clients, and I was particularly interested in working with pregnant women. Over time I developed a course to teach parents and carers how to use shiatsu with their children.

“Normally shiatsu is done through clothing, but baby shiatsu is usually done directly on the skin using oils. It’s different from normal baby massage, because we are working at a deep level with the meridian energy (see glossary). Also, we use gentle perpendicular pressure into the body, instead of smoothing along the skin. I teach parents how to stroke along the meridian lines in the direction of flow of ki (chi) energy (see glossary), according to the principles of yin and yang. I include some ‘tsubos’ in the routine. These are pressure points used to help specific things. (Click here to find out how to do one to calm a distressed baby.) The main point about the classes is giving parents the confidence to make contact with their babies through touch. Although I teach a basic routine, including safety considerations, I encourage parents to follow their intuition about what is right for their babies.

“Baby-shiatsu gives parents confidence about how their child’s body feels in a normal situation, so when the child is fretful or disturbed the parent has some extra insight about when it might be appropriate to call for medical assistance. This can really lessen the anxiety many parents feel around their babies.”

“Baby-shiatsu works at a deep level, because we are working with meridians and pressure points. Many adults say after a shiatsu treatment that they feel invigorated and relaxed at the same time. Our aim with baby-shiatsu is to achieve this for the baby.”

“Touching and massaging babies is a normal part of many cultures. When I started I didn’t know anyone else who was doing baby-shiatsu, but there are now other practitioners working on babies and children, and teaching it to parents, carers and midwives – it’s starting to grow.”

Click here to email Tamsin. Click here to visit her web site.

Read more health and wellness articles about babies and children.