3 yo dd hitting and biting 2 yo sister- what to do?

[Wearegoingtobedlehem]

She just hit her sister again- so i have told her she is not going out to her activity this afternoon- is that the right thing to do?

She is going through a challenging stage at the moment and I often wonder the right way to deal with it.

She is having a lot of hospital stays at the moment which I'm sure doesn't help- but I can't excuse hitting and biting can I ?

I find it hard not to react a bit emotionally when siblings don't get on, it can be upsetting (just as you go all gooey when they are being loving to each other) but of course it is very common and normal - especially when there are other things going on as you say. personally I think it's too long a gap between the action and the consequence for a 3yo to stop her going to her activity today. I think I would try definitely show that hitting and biting is not OK (briefly removing her from game/toy/your presence?) but also try really hard for a while, by hovering, to head off any potential situations, and also try to engineer lots of fun cooperative things together, or ways she can be the big sister and show/teach/help her little sister with things.

Thank you madamnoo, I really appreciate your reply. She is just being quite naughty at the moment and I am really struggling to stop the biting and hitting- at the weekend she bit her sister on the face- they were cuddling at the time!
But yes she has got a lot going on at the moment and I have gone back to work in the last month so they are doing 28 p/w at nursery which is quite a change too.

Many thanks

hth! feel a bit of a fraud actually as I'm certainly no parenting guru.. however my three (bit older than yours now) have fought terribly on occasion and I've found that it helps to try and make them a 'team' in any way possible (even if they end up ganging up on you!) whereas punishing too much just makes them resent the sibling more, for getting them into trouble as they see it.