This $150 massage wand is like a Theragun for babies

For hundreds of years, parents around the world have massaged their infants to soothe them and bond with them. But in the U.S., the practice isn’t very common.

Elina Furman, founder of a new brand called Kahlmi, wants to change that. She’s developed a $150 device that’s basically a Theragun for little ones, with low vibrations and a soft silicone wand customized for a baby’s anatomy. It’s part of a wave of beautifully designed but expensive parenting tools–from the $1,500 SNOO bassinet to the $140 Lovevery play mat–targeting millennial parents.

Whitney Cesares, a pediatrician who has published two books with the American Academy of Pediatrics, says the benefits of baby massage are extensive and well researched. She points out that the practice has become popular over the past decade largely because parents are now encouraged to have extended skin-to-skin contact with their infants, as well as mindful, undistracted time to connect with them. The problem, however, is that there aren’t any science-backed guidelines about how to actually perform massage, despite organizations like Infant Massage USA and the International Association of Infant Massage that try to educate parents. “There are no guidelines about what strokes to use or even what baby oil to use,” she says.

Furman, who was trained as an infant massage educator, found that many American parents wanted to massage their babies but didn’t have the confidence. Furman compares infant massage to baby-wearing, a practice that was common in other countries for centuries, but only became popular in the U.S. and Europe in the 1960s when brands like BABYBJÖRN developed carriers that showed parents how to do it.

Manasa Mantravadi, a pediatrician who advises Kahlmi, was born in India and came to the U.S. when she was three. Her mother massaged her as an infant, and she did the same for her twins. Mantravadi says the experience was calming both for her newborns as well as for her. But she says the practice can feel daunting if people haven’t done it before. “If you don’t happen to have an Indian immigrant mother who can teach you the basics, you might need a tool to help you,” she says.

The Kahlmi is beautifully designed, but at $150, it’s out of many parents’ reach, particularly since you don’t actually need it to perform a massage. Furman justifies the price by arguing that it can be used it many different contexts and for many years. And ultimately, she says, the device is meant to make infant massage easier and more pleasurable, but it’s not crucial. “In the end, people shouldn’t feel like they need expensive tools to be good parents,” says Cesares.