How does everyone handle hitting by a one year old? DCG is 18 months. She hits the other children if I'm interacting with them, she hits them when she's mad at them, she hits them when she's frustrated, and most recently she's starting hitting them when she's told no or lightly reprimanded. ie. she'll pick up something she shouldn't, I'll say "no thanks, DCG. We don't touch that", she'll frown, walk over to another child and hit them. Sometimes when she's frustrated she will hit herself. Now, she's 18 months old, so it's not hard hitting and it is clearly a way of expressing herself because she's not very verbal yet, but I'm trying to figure out how to address this since I can't have her hitting everyone all day long.

When it first started a few months ago, I would remind her to have "gentle hands" and show her a gentle touch. Now, I will take her hands, look her in the eye, and say "no hitting" and have her say sorry/give a hug. If she's sitting on my lap with another child and she hits them, I tell her "no hitting" and put her down. She cries. I give it a minute and ask if she'd like to try again without hitting. I pick her up and we continue the story without any hitting. I've been thinking about having a consistent consequence when she hits, but should the consequence for hitting out of malice be the same for hitting because she feels frustrated?

TIA!