How much sleep do babies and toddlers need? The table below gives some average sleep times.

*Note: Very small babies will only sleep for 2-4 hours at a time

Remember these times are averages. Some children will sleep more, some will sleep less. 

I have been told by a number of people in the "know" that I should be engaging with Social Media. I am therefore trying to do so. This is not my first attempt! The last time that I joined the 21st Century by signing up to Face Book, my so called "friends" took to slagging my driving off - peculiar as some of them hadn't been in a car with me for 20 years. I lasted 2 weeks and deactivated myself.

Having made a few cock up's I now seem to have on Face Book a Wendy Dean Profile, a Baby Sleep System Group, a Baby Sleep Answers web page and a random slide called Baby Sleep (which I can't seem to delete). Not to be put off, I update them all with little sleep related ramblings, links to articles, this blog and success stories on the BSA Forum. As I don't understand any of it and only seem to have acquired 5 friends, I don't think anybody is reading my efforts - in a way its quite therapeutic though!

I have also started to Tweet. I don't think I have any followers so I am twittering to myself!

I am thinking of making some instructional videos to make my pages more interesting. However, I keep breaking out in a cold sweat when I think of my last film making experience. I was making an introductory video for Pampers on the day of the student riots. I kept having to stop because of police helicopters, screaming students and the final straw - police horses cantering down the street outside the window. I was a gibbering wreck by the end of the day. I was going to link to the video to show you the final result, but it seems to have disappeared.

Ooh, my email inbox has just alerted me to the fact that articleinfo is now following me. Is that good?

"Is my baby ready to drop night feeds?" is one of the most common questions that I am asked. In summary, your baby is likely to be ready if:

1. They are over 4 months old, in a 4 hourly daytime feeding routine and still waking twice or more for a feed.
2. Is on 3 meals a day, but still feeding through the night.
3. Drinks a small amount of formula or only breast feeds for 5-10 minutes at a time.

If one of the above applies then the likely explanation is that your baby is using the night feeds as a prop. How does s/he fall asleep at bedtime? If they are feeding to sleep, then that's the place to start! Change the bedtime routine so that the feed isn't the last action before bed. If s/he is waking regularly, start by maintaining a 4 hour feeding schedule and then you will be able to use milk reduction or a settling strategy from The Baby Sleep System to reduce and finally remove the other feeds. The important thing to keep in mind is that as long as the above applies, your baby will not be starving and it's as important to teach good sleep habits as to help him/her develop in other key areas.

As you may or may not, I am honoured to be a member of the Pampers Village Parenting Panel as their resident baby sleep expert . In that capacity I visited the Pampers Nappy Plant last week in Manchester. I have to say that whilst I was not necessarily anticipating an interesting day out, I was blown away! Here are the interesting facts that I gleaned from the day:

• No Pampers nappy is ever touched by a human hand until a mum opens the packet.
• Independent research has shown that a Pampers nappy is more ecologically sound than a washable nappy, unless this is used for 2 or more children and line dried (not an option here in the Peak District very often, I'm afraid!).
• Proctor and Gamble is a great company to work for and they only ever promote from within. More than half the staff at the Plant had 20+ years service.

I have to say that all of the staff I have met - Catherine and Gillian in particular, are very lovely people and clearly very clever.

Ultimately, I had a great day, feel even more confident about promoting Pampers' nappies as a fab product and found that the information I received really helped me advise mums and dads at the Baby Show the week after.