Inconsolable after nap

[justtheone]

DS is 4yrs 3 months and started in Reception in September. He gave up his 2 hour afternoon nap about 9 months ago but has now started to fall asleep in the car on the way home from school (journey takes about 20-25 minutes). He fell asleep twice last week and every day so far this week.

The main problem with the nap is that when I wake him up, he is in a terrible mood. He is either inconsolable or he has a tantrum. This is totally out of character. I have tried everything I can think of... allowing him to sleep for 2 hours, 1 hour or waking him when we get home. The result is always the same, I just can't seem to get through to him. I have tried consoling him, suggesting something exciting to do, ignoring him, feeding him but there seems to be no solution.

I have also tried to ensure that he does not fall asleep but generally fail about 5 minutes from home. Does anybody have any suggestions as afternoons are becoming a nightmare.

Thank you.

My dd's just started Reception and she is permanently shattered - if we drove home, she would be asleep by the time we got here too. Is he getting plenty of sleep at night time? If not then perhaps that needs addressing. Otherwise I think it's just something that will probably get better as he gets more used to being at school full-time - that's what I'm hoping with my dd's tiredness anyway.

Hi there
My son is starting school in January... so I haven't quite experienced this phase yet ... but he has always been foul when waking up from a daytime sleep (and I kind of sympathise because I feel drugged for about 2 hours afterwards when I sleep in the day). My solution has been to put him in front of the video (with favourite video or kids programmes recorded from the morning) and give him a glass of warm milk (which I insist that he drinks - ideally in a calm way!) I leave him to it and after about 30 mins he gets down from the chair and behaves fairly normally. The other thing is to have tea ready to eat by 5 o'clock (try and prepare it earlier in the day) - blood sugar lows cause big whining sessions in our house.
I do sympathise as these 30 - 45 min sessions paralysed our day for 1-2 years, but the video / milk rountine seemed to be the calmest way of dealing with it.

Hi. My DD1 hasn't started school, but when I dropped her nap (shes 2.6) she used to occassionally fall asleep in the afternoon. If it was passed 2 pm she used to be in a foul mood for up to an hour. Really bad, you could do nothing with her. I used to sit and watch tv with her, not speaking or pestering or coaxing etc. I'd only start talking to her when she started to speak to me, that way I knew she'd come round. Do you have a kid's cd you could listen to in the car so that you could put it on about 15 mins from home and then start singing out loud so he can join in. I used to sing in a really silly voice which DD used to find amusing.