Hitting sibling

What do you all recommend for a toddler who is hitting his new sucking? And everyone else. This is really sudden. He's kicking the cats, hitting sister and mom and Dad and pinching. We'd worked really hard on gentle touch ages ago and this is probably related to the new sibling but I don't know what tactic to take. What we are doing isn't working and just escalated him and we ended up yelling and time out.

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Big Little Feelings on Instagram has some great tips for this! One being the “10 minute miracle” - basically letting him pick the activity and giving him positive attention to help fill his cup.

Try offering other things he can do rather than punishing/reacting strongly. Sometimes the reaction may be what he’s looking for! We do hitting the couch, pushing against my hands with her hands or feet, and pushing the ottoman.

@Josie those are good ideas. And I know the reaction is what he's looking for, but we have to have an immediate reaction when he's trying to step on his 7 week old sister. There's not much room around that because he could do her serious damage. Me in usually able to shift to other activities but I'm so over stimulated with pumping and breast feeding that I'm just struggling. Hitting the couch and pushing hands/ottoman is a good idea though. Will try.

Ugh my daughter went through a major hitting and biting stage when I was pregnant. So far she’s been good with baby but the other day she accidentally (I think?) kicked him in the face and his nose bled 😭 the daycare recommended the “hands aren’t for hitting book” honestly don’t know if it works but we did buy it and read it to her.

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