2yo keeps scratching siblings

[Jinxed2]

My son is 2y 8m and has a thing at the moment for scratching his older siblings who are 11 and 13. Sometimes he does it because they are annoying him or winding him up but it seems to have developed now into him just doing it because he feels like it!

He has just had my 11 year old in tears because he has dug his nails into him. I keep telling him it isn’t nice and that it hurts and he wouldn’t like it, to do gentle touching etc. We’ve tried giving him no reaction but that seems to make him do it more! I’m really at my wits end, has anyone any ideas? I’ve put all his toy cars away for the night now which has upset him.

Can you (or them) tell when he's about to do it and grab his hand to stop him? Or is it completely out of the blue?

Most of the time it’s out of the blue! Today my daughter was sat on the sofa looking at her phone, she had ripped jeans on and he just scratched where her leg was bare with no warning ☹️

Trim his nails right down, and a firm 'No!' when he goes to do it.

I too would say to cut his nails. Also to give the older two the back up to say "No" firmly, and remove his hand when he does it.