Gua sha is an ancient and treasured Chinese medicine massage done with a smooth, carved stone and a bit of oil. Inspired by ancient methods, we've adapted the original, heritage-rich techniques to use with babies and pregnancy. To engage in a delicate gua sha massage, you lightly stroke the skin to promote healing beneath it1. Gua Sha massage has proven effective on a whole range of issues—from low back pain2 to allergies3 to inflammation4 to immune strengthening5 and more.
Most of all, we love the way babies love it. Perhaps you’ve heard of facial gua sha using only soft, smooth pressure that’s deliciously soothing, uplifting, and toning. That comforting pressure is what you give your baby, too.
Babies who seem to not have a care in the world beyond food, sleep, and snuggles can carry tension, trauma, or stress from their prenatal growth or from birth6. Mothers who experienced significant stressful life events during pregnancy can have low-birthweight babies who are more vulnerable to issues1 in both childhood and adulthood.
But relieving a baby’s stress and tension through massage helps them grow better and stronger8—it improves weight gain, aids digestion, improves circulation, and increases immune strength.
Every loving touch tells your baby they’re safe, included, and supported, helping them learn to cope better with life.
The beauty of gua sha massage for babies is that it can provide the same physical and psychological9 benefits as it does for adults—stress reduction, increased sleep, lower blood pressure, and slower breathing10.
Gua sha helps lower our fight-or-flight response (sympathetic nervous response) and ups our rest-and-digest response to life11 (parasympathetic response)12.
Your baby’s skin is their first defense against the impacts of temperature, toxins, and bacteria. Gua sha helps stimulate the skin’s own immune function13, helping it work as the powerful barrier it’s designed to be.
This ancient massage technique increases the microcirculation that moves lymph and detoxifies your baby’s body of environmental contaminants like air pollution and chlorine in water.
And let’s not ignore another benefit from gua sha: giving this soft, smooth treatment to your baby helps lower your stress14 too, as you enjoy another way to bond together and more deeply.
Gua sha massage requires three or four things:
- A compliant baby just waiting to be lovingly touched by you.
- Hydration to prepare the skin for the benefits of oil—like our Soothing Serum, used to balance and clear the skin, building up natural microflora for a healthy ecosystem.
- Oil to create a smooth glide across your baby’s skin—like your’ll get from our Nurturing Oil that’s not only free of toxins, it’s full of healthy ingredients that feed your baby’s skin from the outside in.
- A specially designed tool—like our rose quartz gua sha stone—with all the right curves, allowing you to apply soft, smooth pressure in all the right places.
Rose quartz embodies loving energy and brings another layer of soothing energy to your massage. It helps build trust and harmony, provides comfort and calm, and promotes close connections15. Using it can activate specific regions in the brain and trigger the release of feel-good hormones like endorphins, dopamine, and natural painkillers16.
We wish every baby could have the comfort and pleasure of gua sha massage. You supply the sweet baby and our Gua Sha Set supplies the tools for pleasure, bonding, relaxing, and healing.
Parent by parent and massage by massage, our love for babies travels out to the world through every Gua Sha Set, helping create a world of health, peace, and joy.
