10 Awesome Tips to Handle A Toddler Cranky After Nap

Is your toddler super cranky after nap time? Use these 10 brilliant tried and tested hacks to help curb the grumpiness away.

When my little one was 2 years old, my most dreaded time of the day would be the post-nap time.

It was hard enough getting my toddler to take a nap. But the time AFTER she woke up from a nap would be when things would spiral out of control.

Instead of waking up feeling refreshed and energized, my 2 year old would wake up every SINGLE day in a terrible mood. She’d throw tantrums, have meltdowns over everything and basically just stay grumpy for well over an hour after getting up. It took a serious toll on my mental health.

After talking with family and friends and realizing that kids were capable of getting up from naps without all the hysteria, I set off on a mission to uncover how to mitigate the post-nap grumpies.

Today I’d like to share with you everything I learned about the strategies that actually work.

Why is my toddler so grumpy after nap?

Many toddlers wakes up cranky after nap time because they have not slept for long enough. So they actually wake up feeling tired. Other reasons include bad dreams, hunger and a feeling of disorientation.

Why is a toddler cranky after nap time?

Before getting into how to deal with a toddler cranky after nap time, it’s important to first understand why your child wakes up grumpy in the first place.

This will help you come up with a plan to address the problem. Based on research, these are the 4 most common reasons:

1. Still tired after nap

A lot of toddlers nap for a very short while (short meaning 30ish minutes) and then wake up actually feeling exhausted. They don’t feel well rested at all. So all the screaming and crying basically translates into: I’m still tired.

2. Feeling disoriented

Many adults wake up from an afternoon nap feeling disoriented. Your toddler is no exception. It’s not a nice feeling to wake up confused and not knowing whether it’s night or day or where everybody else in the house is.

3. Feeling hungry

Yup, good old hunger. Many toddlers wake up from an afternoon nap feeling really hungry. And the only way they can communicate that with you is by screaming their head off.

4. Getting bad dreams

Many toddlers experience night time terrors, but these can occur during day time naps too. And they are terrifying for a little one to have.

This post is all about how to handle a toddler cranky after nap time

What to do when your toddler wakes up cranky?

The best thing to do when your toddler wakes up cranky is to remain calm and relaxed. Offer hugs, cuddles, back rubs, yummy snacks and reassuring words to help your toddler calm down after a post nap tantrum.

How to Handle A Toddler Cranky After Nap Time

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at NO additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.

1. Plan Your Shedule Around the Crankiness

I learnt this the hard way. I always needed to be somewhere or get something important done right after my toddler woke up. And she’d sense that from my tone of voice and body language.

This would add to my child’s irritability upon waking up and make her not want to do anything. This included not wanting to wash her face, brush her hair, put on her shoes or be anywhere near remotely ready to head out the door.

So my advice to you would be: don’t have anything important planned RIGHT after your child gets up.

Try to finish off important errands so that when your child wakes up from nap time you’re less rushed, more relaxed and your child can sense a more calm environment.

2. Increase the duration of the nap

As mentioned above, one of the reasons a toddler wakes up cranky from nap time is because they didn’t get sufficient sleep. So it’s important to try to increase the duration of your child’s nap so that they wake up feeling more rested. Some of the ways you can do that is by:

Establishing a nap time routine (just like you’d do for a night time routine)
Giving a snack right before nap time
Putting a sound machine in your child’s room to reduce chances of wake ups
Adding a cool mist humidifier to your child’s room to help improve breathing and reduce congestion (this is the one we have at home and i honestly don’t know what I’d do without it!)

3. Provide an incentive to get up

By this I don’t mean have a present ready for your child every time they wake up from a nap. An incentive can be anything that your child can look forward to right when they get up.

This could be cuddle time with you, a short story, snack time or a trip to the park. Basically anything they can focus on besides their own crankiness.

4. Mitigate grumpiness with snacks

One of the reasons your toddler wakes up from nap time throwing a tantrum is because of hunger. So having a nutritious (ideally yummy!) little snack ready for your toddler right after they wake up is a superb way to curb the crankiness.

It’s best that you decide the snack to give and have it ready on the table BEFORE your child awakens. That’s because it’s rather difficult to fix a snack up when your child is bawling into your head.

Ideas for post nap snacks include:

Cut up fruit
A granola bar
Pitted dates
Strawberry milkshake

Warm milk with bite sized cookies

5. Wake up in stages

I’ve found that one of the ways to reduce the feeling of disorientation is by waking up your little one in stages.

So instead of your toddler getting up himself, you can be the one who goes into the room and wakes him up before he’s woken up himself.

And by this I don’t mean you barge into the room and say “time to get up!”. Instead, you create a very relaxed environment and let your child wake up in stages.

So you can go in the room and rub your child’s head, give a kiss on the forehead and then leave the room.

Then you can come in and open the blinds/curtains. Then you can turn off the sound machine. The idea is to let your child get up slowly in stages rather than all at once feeling startled.

Bonus Tip:

A great sleep hack that has really helped improve my toddler’s overall sleep health has been switching from a regular old mattress to an organic mattress that is chemical free and completely free of flame retardant chemicals.

I did not realize how important this switch was until I started reading all about the horrible side effects of making kids sleep on mattresses filled with chemicals (news: most mattresses are filled with these chemicals and have a range of terrible effects on a child’s long term health!).

Kids easily spend 8-12 hours a day sleeping and playing on or near their mattress. Because the mattress is in such close proximity to the child for long periods of time, it can easily become a huge source of chemical exposure.

This realization started my search for chemical free mattresses and I came to know of Naturepedic.

Naturepedic mattresses for kids (along with their whole collection of kids organic bedsheets, pillows and protector pads) are chemical free, completely eliminate the use of flame retardant chemicals and are a leading brand dedicated to making safe, non-toxic sleep products for the whole fam.

You can check out more about Naturepedic here and why it’s a go to brand for every parent looking for safer sleep solutions.

6. Slow down

Like I said above, create a relaxed environment. I remember the one thing that would set off my toddler the most after nap time was if we had to go somewhere as soon as she woke up. She’d refuse to get dressed, wash her face, put on her shoes or anything.

The more I tried I rush her, the more she fell pressured and resisted with meltdowns.

So my learning as a parent was: never have anything important planned right after my child woke up. That way I wasn’t a stressed out naggy mom but rather a parent who was more present with my child and in tune with what SHE needed from me (rather than the other way round)

7. Don’t overwhelm with questions

I think a lot of parents (I know I’ve made this mistake! ) tend to wake up our kids with a bombardment of questions.

Did you sleep well, honey?

Would you like a snack?

Do you need to use the bathroom?

These are simple questions but they add to the feeling of disorientation a child is feeling.

I’ve found that a MUCH better approach is to spend 2-3 minutes rubbing your child’s back, stroking their hair or showing some sort of physical affection while not saying anything at all. This way you’re communicating to your child: I’m here for you (without actually saying it) and it adds to their feeling of comfort and safety.

8. Use distraction to your advantage

I’ve used this tactic many times and it really works, especially with younger toddlers.

So for example, my toddler wakes up and I’ll point outside the window to something that I know she’d find exciting. This might be a squirrel up in the tree or a cute dog playing outside. It might be an Amazon parcel that’s arrived (with something I’ve gotten for her) and I tell her let’s open it up together.

This is a great tactic because it distracts your child and channels their energy towards something else. In other words, they forget to be grumpy! 🙂

9. Get outdoors

My toddler would absolutely hate it if we had to go anywhere once she got up after her nap. But the playground was an exception. She would get so excited about going to the playground and she’d totally forget to throw a tantrum.

The fresh air and physical exercise can be a great remedy for reducing the grumpiness.

I’ve written a more detailed post on super fun outdoor toys for toddlers that you can check out.

10. Hugs and cuddles

You can never go wrong with hugs and cuddles. As soon as your toddler wakes up from a nap, try to be there, ready to give lots of hugs and cuddles.

Even if your child has already started crying or is half way through a meltdown, sit them in your lap while quietly rocking them in your arms. Not only will your toddler pick up on your calm, composed and warm attitude but will also wake up feeling loved and a lot less grumpy.

…………………………………………………..

Nap time can be hard. You know what’s harder? Dealing with bedtime stalling.

After trying every single hack out there, I discovered that the one way I could cut down on my child’s bedtime stalling was by getting her into a healthy bedtime routine and then pairing that with a pictoral bedtime routine chart.