How to discipline my own 17 month old son for hitting?

Hey ladies!!
So I'm wondering if any of you know how to discipline a 17 month old for hitting. He's my little guy and I'm not sure if it's a 1 year old thing or if it's something that he has been learning from the other guys (I've been open since January). My husband keeps blaming the other kids but I have a feeling that it's just him wanting to see what will happen because none of the others have hit to just hit. It's normally for a reason (someone took their toy, being rough, etc). With my guy he just walks up to the other kids with whatever toy he has in hand and bonks them on the head. If it's not a toy it's just him waving his hand around trying to bonk the others. He's starting to do it to the new baby that I just started watching and I realized that he's a bit jealous as he's not the littlest anymore and now Mommy has to carry someone else sometimes too but I just don't know what to do with the hitting in the meantime as I know he'll probably grow out of it eventually as well. So far with the other kids if anybody hits I give an automatic timeout (1 min per yr of age that they are) and the toy that was used gets taken away. With him I think he's too small for timeouts but today it's just gotten to the point where I just throw him in his high chair because every time I turn around he's trying to bonk the baby.

I've tried the smacking his hand and saying 'no!' thing, giving him a little bop on the bum and saying 'no!', putting him in the high chair, taking away toys and nothing has worked. He just laughs and does it again. Any suggestions? I obviously can't give a hand smack to another person's child so what do you guys do when it's not your own? I really would like to keep it all the same (even though I'm sure we have different expectations of our own kids than we do of others). I also don't want him or others to think that's how we deal with things (well if mom/daycare provider smacks my/their sons hand then it's ok for me to). I'm sure you get what I mean.

Any things that worked for you?

He is quite young, and when they are that little you do have to just build a bit of a tollerance for the fact that they can't really be "disciplined" yet. By the age of 2 you can make more affect by telling them what they are doing is wrong, and using a time out or asking them to be nice. but at this age you can start all that but also keep in mind, his understanding is not quite there yet. I would, show him the kind thing to do, if he got caught hitting someone, I would tell him "no, that hurts _____" then have him give that child a hug. and say "aww. thats nice, _____, likes that more than a hit" and then re-direct your son to another area. other than that...not much you can do right now. He is learning how to communicate, obviously the child he is choosing to hit has done something, taken something, or your son wants something they have. that is the only way he can communicate right now. Once he starts talking, given you continue to let him know hitting is not okay through re-direction, he will begin to slow down on the hits and start "saying" how he feels rather than acting on it. :)