Trauma naps - PLEASE help

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My 2.4 year old usually naps at around 11:30 each day for around a couple of hours.
The last couple of days, I took him upstairs for his nap (after he said he wanted to go to bed), and he just bounced/commando rolled off the bed, zoomed around the room, giggled and shot back down the stairs, bumping/sliding down on his belly. This happened 5-6 times throughout the afternoon, until it eventually got too late and at about 6pm he finally became overcome with tiredness, started screaming (and I mean SCREAMING, with real tears) about wanting sweets and eventually screamed himself to sleep. It was absolutely traumatic.
He's just done it again, and I can't take another day of this.

Why is he doing it and how can I help him??!

Anyone?

I had something similar with both mine at around this age. I always thought it was them transitioning from needing to not needing naps in the day. It ended up just being an akward phase that we had to get through until they didn’t nap anymore and I only bothered trying naps on the days they were especially tired/had been busy.

Maybe if the naps keep not working, instead of doing a nap you could do quiet/ calm time?

You poor thing. My daughter is younger and I haven’t dealt with what you describe but could you try getting him to nap in the buggy or car if you went for a drive?

When DD is obviously tired but too unsettled to give in and go to sleep I sometimes have a shower with her or give her a bath, or we spend a bit of time in the garden as it sort of resets her and then she’s ready to let go and have a rest.

If you have to abandon a lunchtime nap, I would suggest insisting on a quiet hour in its place.

I'd set toddler up with pillow and blanket on the sofa and put a film on the tv (with dummy or comforter, if used). While there need not be an insistence she sleeps, there should be the insistence that it's quiet time and not play time. She might nod off for a bit, she may not, but either way she has a rest hour.

My DD gave up naps at about 20m. She would simply not sleep, she would play and make it quite clear she didn't want to be in the cot, and on the days she did nap our evening bedtimes were awful.

So I did as FATE suggested and after lunch had a quiet hour watching TV. Occasionally she would have a nap in the car or pram if she'd been extra busy but otherwise she just didn't need them anymore.