Nearly 3-year-old suddenly waking at 4.30am, any advice?

[TwinMummaX]

My little girl is almost 3 and for the last few weeks she has been waking up at 430am to start the day, refusing to go back to bed, play in her room or anything. She has always been 6am like clockwork so 430am is a bit of a shock. She goes to bed at 730pm we have tried a later bedtime which appears to make no difference. She still has a nap from 12pm- 1.30pm. We have tried to stop this nap but by 5pm she is exhausted and beside herself emotionally so appears to still need it. We just dont know what else to try.

Cut the nap down to 45 mins?

Black out curtains?

I was going to say black out film on windows but 1hr30 nap at that age is crazy.

I would cut down the nap to start. Gradually keep cutting down the nap by 15 mins. I agree with PP and say 45 mins max.

Try ..
GP check for ears. Teeth, worms.
Is she cold? Warmer pjs. Socks?
Cut midday nap down.
Feed her more for dinner.
Block out blind.
Sound block windows.
Morning and afternoon time outside running using gross motor skills.
Is she ready to be toilet trained at night?
Is there a pet/cat that wakes her? Or a regular train whistle?

Do you have a blackout curtain/blind? It is light at 4.30 maybe waking her up.

Thank you for the suggestions. She does already have a black out blind in her room, the temperature in her room stays at about 18 through the night. We are always outside she is very active and also has a huge appetite so always eats well. We previously tried cutting her nap shorter but she was so tired and really grumpy / tired all afternoon after about a week i went back to 1hr30mins. She has a twin brother whos routine is exactly the same and he sleeps in consistantly until 630 every morning.

It isn’t relevant what her brother is doing though. Kids have different sleep needs.

I would try cutting the nap again, just be 10 mins at a time.

It sounds like a tough vicious circle to break. She is clearly going to be tired because she is getting up at 4.30am.