Well VVV, I could very rarely calm my DS with a breastfeed so I didn't generally offer so then he didn't associate it with camming down and the circle went on.
He also very rarely fed to sleep (and that was despite two years of trying to get him to fall asleep on the breast)
I'm not sure if all this started because ds didn't want breastfeeding to calm him down (and believe me he was very emphatic about the refusal) or because I didn't generally offer a breastfeed for calming reasons in the first place.
Believe me, part of me would have LOVED a baby I could calm down with breastfeeding but an even bigger part of me felt that it was 'wrong' somehow. A big part of me really does belive that feeding a child every time they get upset or cry is not a good message for a child to learn in a world where we have plenty of food available.
In a world where food is scarce, which is what we were designed to live in then I don't think this is as much of an issue. In our modern world, if you have a child who has a genetic tendency to put on weight, then teaching them that every time they are upset, food will calm them down is in my view dangerous.
Most babies wil be fine with this, but we have a lot of obesity in my family and there was a good chance that ds might have inherited this genetic tendency. So along with breastfeeding as long as possible, I also wanted ds to learn from a very early age that food does not equate to comfort.
The negatives were that I had a harder time calming him if he was upset, but when he stopped breastfeeding (something he did on his own) I really didn't miss it as a tool for getting him to sleep or as calming device.