Infants were randomly assigned to a message therapy group or a control group with 16 infants in each group. Infants were about 3 weeks old and born to mothers of lower socioeconomic status. There were 11 male infants in the massage therapy group and 9 male infants in the control group. Nine massage infants were African American, 5 were Hispanic, and 2 were white. Ten control infants were African American, 5 were Hispanic, and 1 was White.
In the study, the first 15-minute massage occurred about one hour after the morning feeding, the second about 30 minutes after the midday feeding, and the third about 45 minutes after the completion of the second stimulation period. Each treatment session consisted of 5 minutes of tactile stimulation, followed by 5 minutes of kinesthetic stimulation, and finished with another 5-minute period of tactile stimulation. During tactile stimulation, the infant was placed face down and was given moderate pressure stroking with the flats of the fingers of both hands. For the kinesthetic phase, the infant was placed face up. Each of the 5 one-minute long segments consisted of 6 passive flexion/extension movements, lasting about 10 seconds each. Infants were examined daily for weight gain, volumetric input, number of bowel movements, and medications. Kilocalories were also calculated each day. The number of family visits was recorded each of the study. Family visits usually consisted of the parents holding and feeding their infant. On the fifth day of massage therapy, observations were taken about 90 minutes after the day's first massage to allow sufficient time to prevent any immediate treatment effects on behavior. A standardized behavior coding system was used that included 7 states: 1) Non-REM sleep 2) active sleep with REM 3) REM sleep 4) drowsy 5) quiet alert 6) active alert 7) crying. The 30-minute observations recorded the percent time the infant spent in each behavior state.
