My daughter is almost 13 months and we are struggling with her hitting. She generally does this when being held and either wants something you aren't getting for her or wants down. She was fairly young when she started this behavior and I used to just take her hands and gently touch my face and tell her we don't hit we use gentle hands. This approach did not seem to be help (and sometimes even resulted in her hitting again) so I have started putting her down and telling her hitting is not nice and she can play alone for awhile which normally leads to an epic meltdown.
Do you have any other suggestions? Is this normal? She is often so cuddly but when she does this she scowls and everything and just seems so mean. I am hoping this is just a phase but this behavior has been around for some time.