Use the :first-child
selector.
In your example...
$('div.alldivs div:first-child')
This will also match any first child descendents that meet the selection criteria.
While
:first
matches only a single element, the:first-child
selector can match more than one: one for each parent. This is equivalent to:nth-child(1)
.
For the first matched only, use the :first
selector.
Alternatively, Felix Kling suggested using the direct descendent selector to get only direct children...
$('div.alldivs > div:first-child')