Hellobee Boards

This sounds so tough! Sorry you are dealing with this. It seems like you've gotten a lot of good advice and I hope you're able to find a strategy that works with your LO.

We recently worked through a hitting phase but haven't yet had the transition to a new sibling (coming in January!), so I'm sure that adds a major element on all sides! I have a feeling I'll be referring to this thread for new tips and tricks soon...

In our experience, it took a bit of time to work through this hitting phase, probably 3-4 weeks. It felt like forever but it did pass! Time outs also were a bust for us and just made him angrier. We generally followed Janet Lansbury's advice (a pp linked her site already): stay calm (use your calm CEO voice), block his hands or walk away, and provide language that doesn't judge his big feelings.

Here are some of the Janet Lansbury articles that were helpful for us:
http://www.janetlansbury.com/2015/08/in-times-of-transition-our-children-need-to-feel-our-love-6-ways-to-help/
http://www.janetlansbury.com/2014/07/my-preschooler-is-hitting-me/
http://www.janetlansbury.com/2015/01/the-most-important-thing-to-know-about-your-childs-aggression/

So my LO is only 2 - different than 3 for sure - but we have had a lot of success with good ol' Daniel Tiger, "When you feel so mad that you want to roar, take a deep breath and count to four," as well as, "Give a squeeze nice and slow, take a deep breath, and let it go." Maybe not helpful at all but if he's a Daniel Tiger fan, maybe try those episodes and see if revisiting the strategies when it starts as Daniel's idea helps?

@Tidybee: Thank you for recommending the podcast! I listened to one 8-minute episode so far and it rocked my parenting world. Now to put it into practice...