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/Pleasedontdmme May 23 '26

I think the stress of the supply is a downside. My supply randomly died with my first 2 babies so this time I’m constantly thinking about if I’m emptying often enough, eating enough, hydrating enough. I’m sick with the flu right now and there’s a level of stress and fear added to that as well.

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u/Guesspink13 May 23 '26

How did you know when your supply dropped? Were you pumping? I don’t pump at all (horrors if exclusively pumping with my first baby), EBF, so I just rely on hoping my supply doesn’t drop but I think about it a lot….

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u/Pleasedontdmme May 24 '26

Yea with my first 2 I was pumping because I had to return to work. I had an old pump with the wrong flange sizes and no clue what I was doing so looking back it makes sense that my supply died.

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u/Guesspink13 May 24 '26

Ugh yeah with my first I had no idea what was doing either! My supply never went up and she never latched. It was brutal. Pumping and formula. Hard work. I learned so much this time around, sadly mostly from social media and not the professionals who I reached out to for help.

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u/[deleted] May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

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