Kid has strange posture after waking up from a lunch nap

Question

My kid has a really strange habit. Every time she wakes up from a lunch nap, she seems sad. She would sit on the ground with her legs straight, her body bends forward, her arms are straight and crossed like an X and placed in front of her stomach, and head a little down. She seems sad but doesn't cry or anything. If I tell her to stop, she stops. But a few minutes later she would start again. If we leave her alone, she will just sit like this for one minute or sometimes more. One hour after she wakes up, she will forget about it and be happy as normal. It does not happen when she wakes up in the morning, only when she does after a lunch nap.

She has been developing this habit for around 6 months now. She is 24 months old now.

What is this, and how can I deal with it?

Answer 1

Sounds like a variation on the fetal position to me. Kids often do that during or after sleep because they’re cold, or just tired. My son (6yp) is doing that right now in fact... nothing to be concerned with or even correct, by itself, I’d say. (Though please feel free to ask your pediatrician if this or anything else worries you!)

Answer 2

Same here. My daughter adopted a slightly different position a few months later than yours but I never thought it is anything to be "dealt with". A year on and everything thing is fine.

I think it is the time they start feeling "sleep dizziness" after getting up. Everyone expresses it in their own original way. If everything else is fine, as it seems to be, I would not bother much, if at all. It comes, it goes, just like everything in a child's development.