Risks of Not Breastfeeding

Among focus group participants (mothers who did and did not breastfeed), understanding the potential risks associated with not breastfeeding did not evoke guilt, but led to more informed decision-making. (Merewood and Hening, 2004)

Some of the risks associated with not breastfeeding include:

• Increased risk for infectious diseases (for example, otitis media, diarrhea, and respiratory illnesses) and more visits to the pediatrician
• Increased rates of hospitalizations
• Higher postneonatal infant mortality rate
• Possible increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), higher rates of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, lymphoma, leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, overweight, elevated cholesterol, asthma (Ip, 2007)