Advice on long haul travel and vaccinations

[Tlb]

Well we have finally pushed the boat out and managed to avoid the in-laws over christmas and my miserable mother and have booked a holiday to the BVI (cannot wait) it also means it's our last blow out holiday wise while we still can, then we can concentrate on number two baby (some of you may recall my other thread re persuading hubby about no.2 - success! - constant nagging and standing firm won over!!)

Anyway my question is this :What the hell do I do with a 2 and half year old for over eight hours on a plane and do we need vaccinations? some info say we do and some say we don't does anyone have any experience ideas please

Having recently returned from Oz with a 22 month old I can sympathise. Pulling the velcro-attached cloth covers off the headrests of all nearby seats (grabbing the occasional handful of hair as they go), emptying out the amenity kit and generously applying the various creams / toothpaste etc, shouting into the seat-back telly control as if its a phone and producing the world's stinkiest nappy concurrent with the seat belt sign coming on due to turbulence should keep you busy for the first couple of hours at least....

Seriously, there have previously been very good suggestions on Mumsnet on ways to keep young ones entertained and I followed many of them with great success. Choosing your toys carefully so that you don't spend your time picking up miniature bits from the floor, bringing along a few wrapped up gift surprises, having a good supply of favourite snacks to hand and unveiling new books in favourite series all worked well for us. All in all, we have found flights fine as there is lots to look at and generally the crew are very helpful.

On vaccinations, you can phone a British Airways Travel Clinic and they'll be able to advise you.