Cheng 2004.

Methods	Design: randomised controlled trial. Setting: primary care (post‐natally in hospital then in community).
Participants	Sample sizes: n = 100; intervention n = 50; control n = 50. Ages: one day after birth then daily until 42 days. Gender: in total sample 54% male, 46% female.
Interventions	Duration, dose, type. 15 min once daily for 42 days versus routine (no massage) care (medium‐term duration of intervention). Massage provider: mothers.
Outcomes	Types of outcome: head circumference, length, weight, sleep duration and crying time. Timing of assessment: at 3 days and 42 days of age.
Notes	Funder: not stated.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	High risk	Described as ‘randomly divided’ but no details given. Comment: judged as high risk, no further details available from trial investigator.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	High risk	No apparent attempt to conceal allocation, no details given. Comment: judged as high risk, no further details available from trial investigator.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	100/100 results reported. No dropouts reported. Dropouts or losses to follow‐up not addressed in the study report.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All pre‐specified outcomes reported.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Not possible due to nature of intervention.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Methods (article keywords) describe  a ‘blind’ study but it is unclear who was blinded and how.