getChildNodes not giving the correct info

Suppose node is of type DOM_Node, then the method

DOM_Node firstChild = node.getChildNodes().item(0);

return a node whose type is 'text' whereas it is actually a DOM_Element. I get
the same behavior if I use the call node.getFirstChild().
Also, if I do the following -
DOM_NodeList list = nodel.getChildNodes();
the number of elements in 'list' is not correct.

However, I get the correct node information if I use the call
DOM_Node firstChild = node.getElementbyTagName("TagName").item(0);