How to select the first paragraph in a div with a specific class (CSS 2)

I have a <div> containing many <p> elements and need to apply some style only to the first <p> inside every <div> with a specific class (cnt).

Please note this question may appear similar to others on SO, but the role I need should apply only for class cnt, which makes it different.

//I use YUI 3 Reset and Grid:
<link href="http://yui.yahooapis.com/3.4.0/build/cssfonts/fonts.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<link href="http://yui.yahooapis.com/3.4.0/build/cssgrids/grids.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

        <div class="cnt">
             <p>Number 1</p>
             <p>Number 2</p>
             <p>Number 3</p&g开发者_Python百科t;
        </div>


            // I'm using this class without success!"
           .cnt p:first-child
            {
                background-color:Red;
            }

    // Other classes could create some conflict
    .cnt p
    {
        margin: 10px 0px 10px 0px;
    }
    .cnt h2, .cnt h3, .cnt h4, .cnt h5, .cnt h6
    {
        font-size: 16px;
        font-weight: 700;
    }
    .cnt ul, .cnt ol
    {
        margin: 10px 0px 10px 30px;
    }
    .cnt ul > li
    {
        list-style-type: disc;
    }
    .cnt ol > li
    {
        list-style-type: decimal;
    }
    .cnt strong
    {
        font-weight:700;   
    }
    .cnt em
    {
        font-style:italic;
    }
    .cnt hr
    {
        border:0px;
        height:1px;
        background-color:#ddddda;
        margin:10px 0px 10px 0px;
    }
    .cnt del
    {
        text-decoration:line-through;
        color:Red;
    }
    .cnt blockquote 
    {   margin: 10px;
        padding: 10px 10px;
        border: 1px dashed #E6E6E6;
    }
    .cnt blockquote p
    {
        margin: 0;
    }

PS: I need it in CSS 2 (neither the less CSS3 :first-of-type works great)

Your example should work fine

Demo

Alternate method

Live Demo

Try using the first-of-type selector.

.cnt p:first-of-type{
    background-color:Red;
}

It is a CSS3 selector and wont work on IE8 however.

One thing that people always forgets about are adjacent selectors, that work (to some extent) in IE7+, try this:

HTML

<div class="paragraph">
    <p>some paragraph</p>
    <p>some paragraph</p>
    <p>some paragraph</p>
    <p>some paragraph</p>
    <p>some paragraph</p>
</div>

CSS

p {
    color:black;
}

.paragraph p {
    color:red;
}

.paragraph p + p {
    color:black;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/andresilich/AHHrF/

Here is an example using a different method, not using :first-child.

http://jsfiddle.net/chricholson/dp3vK/6/

It involves setting a style for all p tags (to get generic styling), then only where a p tag is after a p tag will more styles be affected. You can use this to your advantage, set ALL the p tags to have the style of the first tag, then overwrite for the others