DS, who is thirteen months old, has started hitting more lately. I don't know if this is a developmental thing where he just doesn't know his own strength yet or what. When I say 'Ow' or try to act stern, he finds this funny and just starts hitting more. To be fair to him we have been trying to teach him how to 'love easy' on my parent's dog and we tend to show our affection by little head bonks (never hard, just little taps of the forehead but he loves the sound of the word 'bonk'). And he also gives good hugs and cuddles. But I'm concerned with this constant swatting and hitting at, knocking things over when we're in a tantrum and the likes.

I know it's probably completely normal but we're about to have a baby. Like, any day now. I'm concerned that he might try and hit at the baby to wake it up or try to tell it to be quiet or the likes. I don't know how to make him understand that something's not okay, especially when it could injure another member of our family. He's still really young so I can't sit him down and have a conversation with him about it and when I do reprimand him for hitting (like by gently grabbing his hand and holding it so he can't pull away or gently smacking his hand), he just gets angry and cries. And the hitting continues later.

Has anyone else had experience with this? What did you do? How would you handle this situation?