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Massage 4 Kids
Sick children who need repeated treatment can sometimes grow fearful of doctors and others at hospitals, knowing that the work they do can cause pain.
At Children's Medical Center in Dallas, massage therapist Wendy Smith tries to ease their fears, Dallas television station KDAF reported.
One patient Smith works with is 2-year-old Jacob Ibarra, who has had three surgeries to fix a leak in his spine.
"He had been through so much pain with the surgeries and the picking for the IVs and blood drawings, he was pretty much scared of everybody at that point," said his mother, Jennifer Ibarra.
Smith uses stuffed animals and music to get Jacob used to being touched in a good way.
"What happens with massage, as soon as we touch the skin, that sends a signal to our brain, and our brain has to go, 'Hmmm, do I like this? Do I not like this?'"
Jacob's mother says that the therapy has led him to be more trusting along with easing his soreness after surgery.
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© 2010 Created by Lara Evans Bracciante.
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