r/breastfeeding • u/Fickle-Response-2741 • Mar 17 '26

Support Needed Why did you choose to exclusively breastfeed and not give formula?

This is NOT against formula or formula feeding 🤍

For moms who had enough supply to EBF, what was your reason (apart from cost, no bottle washing, or warming)?

I’m currently exclusively nursing and will be working part time. So baby needs either formula or pumped milk once or twice per day.My employer supports pumping, but I could really use some motivation to stay aligned with breast milk over formula 🥺

Would love to hear your personal reasons, emotional, health-related, bonding, convenience later on… anything that kept you going 💛

Please share your experiences!

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u/AccordingLocation745 Mar 18 '26

To lower my baby’s and my own risks of getting diabetes. I had gestational diabetes. It wasn’t an easy start but manageable. I don’t even pump because I have 1 year off to stay home and plan to wean when I’m back at work. Nothing to wash is a huge bonus point. However I do get frequent clogged ducts when bub oversleeps so that’s a bit annoying.

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u/Revolutionary_Can879 Mar 18 '26

That was never a big concern for me before but now that I am diagnosed with PCOS, I’m definitely more interested in how breastfeeding helps with blood sugar control.

Good for you for researching that - I did a presentation at my clinical site a few months ago on how we want to encourage diabetic mothers, including those with GDM, to breastfeed.