Background: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) till six months is a key determinant for the optimum growth and prevention of common childhood diseases. WHO recommends EBF for the primary six months with the introduction of appropriate complementary foods and continued breastfeeding thereafter. Weaning describes the method where an infant's diet pattern is gradually modified from breast milk or formula milk to cooked foods. Objective: The study aims to review the consequences of short and long-term exclusive breastfeeding, and the problems and the reasons of early weaning of infants. Methods: Google scholar and PubMed databases were used for the searching process of the published papers. Results and conclusions: According to most of the researchers, breastfeeding has several beneficial roles for both mother and baby. For children, these benefits are immunological benefits, gastroenteritis, respiratory tract infection, neurological benefits, etc. For mother these benefits are reduced risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, obesity etc. Early weaning with various types of processed and formula foods before the age of six months has several harmful consequences on infant's health, like, obesity, diarrhea, respiratory diseases, poor brain development, infections, etc. Global breastfeeding scorecard of WHO (2018) reveals that 41% of infants less than 6 months of age are exclusively breastfed, far short for the 2030 global target of 70%.