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Music Therapy Helps Sick Babies October 15, 2007 on 6:05 pm
Researchers found that music therapy helps sick babies in intensive care in maintaining normal behavioral development, making them less irritable, upset and less likely to cry. Research on 40 infants, divided into three groups: those hospitalised and receiving music therapy; those hospitalised and not having music therapy; and healthy babies, cared for at home, without music therapy. The hospitalised infants who received music therapy had up to 12 sessions of the therapist gently singing to them and touching them in a way that directly related to the therapist’s perception of the social needs of the babies.
It was found that music therapy supported the infants’ behavior - these infants maintained the same levels of irritability and crying that they had at admission.Meanwhile, those babies who did not have music therapy deteriorated in their irritability and crying behavior - coping less with their hospitalization as time went on. The babies who received music therapy used up less energy compared with the babies who did not receive the therapy. If a baby is less irritable and cries less, this has implications for rate of healing and weight gain, two significant factors which contribute to the length of a hospital stay.
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