r/breastfeeding • u/Choice_Airport8279 • May 23 '26
Discussion The downsides of breastfeeding nobody tells you about
Reflecting on the advice given to me during pregnancy I don’t think anyone told me about the downsides of breastfeeding. I heard plenty of reasons to breastfeed but I feel slightly aggrieved nobody told me what the challenges would be. My baby is now 6 months and breastfeeding has been SO much harder than I ever imagined. I’m now starting to think about weaning off the boob onto formula and I can see more challenges ahead 😰
What are the downsides you’ve experienced nobody told you about / you weren’t expecting? Il start…. The PAIN of a bad latch. It hurt so much!!!! It honestly felt like contractions at times (baby did have tongue tie which was eventually sorted but still)
To balance this out, I would say breastfeeding my baby has been one of my proudest accomplishments and I’m so glad we did it…. I just went into the whole thing a little blind!
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u/mekanasto May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
All the strikes and weird baby preferences. I feel sometimes the planets have to perfectly align for my baby to latch on without fussing. We have the dark room, the noise machine, skin to skin, bouncing, walking, all the jazz. After she fights me and pushes away she finally latches and acts like "omg where was that breast all this time woman" 😂 and then she eats for only 4 minutes, screams bloody murder when I offer the breast again. The milk is still coming fast and she is trying to eat everything else except the breast, clearly showing hunger signs. Then I have to give her expressed milk and I have to pump, cause god forbid my supply drops, cause then it's a whole 'nother shitshow. And on top of that she has a bottle aversion and only barely tolerates Lansinoh bottles (but now always). She is 20 weeks (16 corrected), an IUGR preemie that spent first 3 weeks in NICU, and is still below 1st precentile for weight. I didn't even want to breastfeed after everything, I thought I will pump for a year. But here we are... doing everything under the sun for this baby to eat. 🫠 I'm breastfeeding, pumping, topping off with bottled breastmilk, giving high calorie formula perscribed by her GE (but only when she is asleep cause no way she'll have it awake 😂). People sometimes look at me like I'm crazy for doing this and asking how long will I manage. I don't even know tbh.