New Toddler Taming, by Dr Christopher Green, is published by Vermilion, priced £12.99.

Over the past two decades many fraught mothers have turned in desperation to Dr Christopher Green.

It is nearly 20 years since the good-humoured, down-to-earth paediatrician wrote Toddler Taming, which became the bestselling definitive guide to effective parenting for the first four years. Those with under-fives who haven't heard of it, haven't lived.

It covers a wide range of concerns ranging from poor sleeping and eating habits to tantrums and sibling rivalry, and has helped more than a million parents survive their children's toddlerhood with their sanity intact.

What made the book so successful was Dr Green's common-sense approach, sensible expectations and his emphasis on humour. He put a perspective on things and helped make parents feel they were not alone.

While he is obviously hugely experienced in paediatrics, Green admits that much of his knowledge comes from bringing up two boys of his own.

Born and educated in Belfast, Green studied medicine at Queens University and went on to paediatrics before moving to Australia where he lives with his wife, a general practitioner.

"I have learned much more from being a parent and all the families who I have worked with than from any professor or academic textbook," he reflects.

"My own children had none of the usual problems such as temper tantrums but both of them knew nothing of sleeping when they should.

"In the middle of the night I would often be writing about my sleeping techniques, knowing that while I wrote one or other of them was romping around the house very awake.

"As a one-year-old, my older boy stopped eating almost completely. If someone had brought him in for me to check I would have thought it not possible that he could survive on so little. Fortunately, for no apparent reason he started eating again at 18 months."

Green, now 58, also readily admits his own limitations as a father.

"Like many other parents, I often feel guilty that in the process of writing and teaching and working so hard as a doctor, I haven't spent the time with my boys that I would have liked. I don't want to pretend that I have been the best parent in the world"

Green has now completely revised and updated his book to include new sections, including one on discipline.

"I suppose you think I am going to tell you all about smacking, locking kids in their rooms and taking the front wheel off the tricycle. Well I'm not. That is not discipline," he argues.

"Ninety-five per cent of discipline will come through the way you speak, see and touch your child. The way to discipline your toddler is through your tone of voice.

"The same goes for the look of approval in your eyes or the reassuring touch that tells them that they are with you."

Throughout the book he repeats that toddlers have little sense and need to be treated like children, not adults.