One of the most important things to consider when purchasing a massage chair is safety. Does it safe for everybody in the family especially my kids? Is there an age limit for children to use massage chair?
The minimum age for kids to use massage chair is 12. Children who is under 12 years old must never use a massage chair without adult supervision.
Why 12 is the age limit for kids to use massage chair?
Kids under this age can find a massage chair session too intense. Their bones and muscles are still fragile and they may not stand the pressure provided by a massage chair. If you want your little one to get a massage, you can find a certificated masseuse to help in giving them the health and physical advantages of a massage.
It is reported that children respond to any sort of massage quite positively. Massage therapy sessions should not last for more than 15 minutes, as the attention spans of children are short and they can find longer sessions irksome. The child may falls asleep while being massaged (the same with adults). This is a positive sign and contributes to the therapy's positive effects.
Benefits of massage for kids
Reduce stress to make kids sleep better
Like adults, kids these days have a lot of stress and pressure from school, competitive friends, or family quarrels. This stress can cause imbalance in the immune system and hormonal imbalances as well. Massage practiced regularly by a masseuse or a massage chair can help a child reduce stress, which can in turn may help the child to sleep better.
If your child is dealing with other stress-aggravated medical problems such as diabetes, stress-induced asthma, and auto-immune diseases, massage chair sessions may also help with these symptoms as well.
Positively support Autistic children
Massage therapists claim that the primary benefit of a massage to autistic children is relaxation. It can combat tiredness and anxiety, decrease blood pressure and heart rate, increase levels of energy, sleep, creative capacity, and thinking process. Autistic kids have shown more concentration and less high strung after a calming massage session. Although there is no proven cure-all for autism, massage provides Western medicine with a supportive treatment; soothing the patient and potentially helping the parents interact with and care for their children.
Autism is now one of America's most frequently diagnosed disorders. If massage can help and, extrapolating from that assumption, massage chairs can offer similar benefits, they could be a great therapeutic modality for autistic kids.
Help ADHD kids have better control
Massage and exercise therapy were found to support ADHD children in a 2003 study released by the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The study recorded that the children in the massage group showed better control of frustration, improved mood, more restful sleep and improved social functioning in 2 of the 3 participants, and improved concentration at school after 6 weeks. It was also noticed that despite having been frustrated with the conventional medical approach, parents felt like they could contribute more to the well-being of their children.
The sample size was too small to draw conclusive assumptions, like the studies done in # 3 above, but both of these studies led researchers to hopefully believe that the findings merited further and longer-term studies on these topics.
Fun thing for children
In spite of many benefits that a massage bring, children may feel hesitate and shine to take the help of a masseuse for massage therapy. Whereas the massage chair is like a play or something enjoyable for them. By using it as a large toy, kids can get the benefits of real care.
Massage therapy contraindications in children
Although massage therapy is certainly a great therapy for children, there are also some contraindications to massage and from what we've researched, they are just the same as those for adults. Please consult a doctor if you have any of the following conditions to confirm that the massage will be OK for your kid.
Contraindications can be "Local" or "Complete":
- Local: depending on the locale of the illness, massage can also be suggested in some cases.
- Complete: the application of massage therapy is certainly a no.
Again, in all of these cases, if you are not sure or worried about using a massage chair for you and your kids, please consult your doctor. Here is the list of contraindications (from http://massage.ca/contraindictionscautions.html):
Local Contraindications:
- Acute inflammation
- Broken bone /over a non-consolidating fracture
- Recent surgery
- Inflammation of the skin
- Varicosities (varicose veins) over sites with deep vein thrombosis
- Local contagious conditions
- Blood clots
- Open wound or sore
- Local irritable skin conditions
- Undiagnosed lump
- Acute lesion
- Malignancy/active cancer
- Skin infection
- Tumor
- Acute flare-up of rheumatoid arthritis
- Recent burn
- Phlebitis (inflammation of a vein)
- Phlebothrombosis (blood clots in the veins)
- Arteritis (inflammation of the arteries)
Complete Contraindications:
- Burns (severe)
- Infectious disease
- Anaphylaxis (life threatening allergic reaction)
- Appendicitis (painful inflamed appendix)
- Cerebrocardiovascular accident (stroke)
- Insulin shock or Diabetic coma
- Epileptic seizure (convulsions)
- Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
- Pneumothorax (air or gas within the chest cavity around the lung)
- Atelectasis (a collapsed portion of the lung which does not contain air)
- Severe asthmatic attack
- Syncope (fainting or loss of consciousness)
- Acute pneumonia
- Advanced kidney failure, respiratory failure, or liver failure (a very modified treatment may be possible with medical consent)
- Diabetic complications such as gangrene, advanced heart or kidney disease, or very unstable high blood pressure
- Eclampsia (a severe form {life threatening} of pregnancy-induced hypertension resulting in seizures)
- Hemophilia severe type (a hereditary bleeding disorder)
- Hemorrhage (involves rapid and uncontrollable loss of blood
- Arthrosclerosis (severe forms of stiffening or hardening of the joints
- Hypertension (unstable) (conditions that are not stable i.e., post stroke or heart attack)
- Medical shock (a life-threatening medical emergency and one of the leading causes of death for critically ill people: the body reacts, and produces insufficient blood flow to reach the body tissues)
- Fever above 38.5 degree C or 101.5 F (significant)
- Some highly metastic cancers (diagnosed not to be terminal)
- Systemic contagious or Infectious conditions
This list is available on the massage therapists website. Definitely, a massage chair is different from the real massage therapist's hands, so some of these situations might not actually be subject to the same caution as a massage therapist. Once more time, if you are concerned or in doubt, please consult your doctor.
Hopefully this article puts your mind at ease as to whether or not your child should use your new massage chair. By all means, if you don't want your babies on your chair at all just place them in your bedroom. You won't have to think about any of the studies or contraindications listed above!