Are some children born difficult?

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The minute George was born, he made his presence felt. Even on his first night in hospital, while other newborns slept, he was awake for hours and hours, protesting loudly if laid in his cot. And so it went on.

'He was a shocking sleeper,' recalls his mum, Sarah McClaren, 34, from Hertfordshire. 'He would wake for hours in the night, and was only really happy if I was holding him. In the evenings, despite feeding, cuddling and soothing him, he cried for ages.

'I started to feel a total failure as a mother. Although he was beautiful, cuddly and healthy, I felt I must be doing something seriously wrong, because everyone else's baby slept except mine.'

Three years later, George's sister, Celeste, was born. 'She was so different!' says Sarah. 'She'd lie in her pram and watch the leaves on the trees. She slept for hours at night, and never cried in the evening. She grinned early and stayed a smiler. I'm convinced she was born with a totally different personality.'

All this raises the question: Are our children born extrovert and cheery or sensitive and shy, or do we make them that way? When it comes to babies, experts tend not to talk about personality but temperament. Our personality is a mix of all sorts of things, including our interests, tastes and favourite activities which, obviously, newborns don't know much about yet. Our temperament is more basic: it's how we approach life. So is this inherited or created after birth?

By Leah Wells