I've just started experimenting with incorporating XML into Flash projects, and
have noticed something odd. When I use firstChild to access my root node, it
looks at the XML declaration, rather than the first tagged node. In other
words, trace(XMLdoc.firstChild) returns "<?xml version="1.0"
encoding="UTF-8"?>" instead of "<root>--content--</root>". Am I missing
something? Thanks.

Can't exatly say where the error is (how the code is?) but I can give you this
link:

http://www.actionscript-toolbox.com/xmlobject.php

A the bottom fo the page you'll find a link for an XML in-Flash viewer, really
useful to understand the xml nodes strucure.

Have fun