WP Category Query

Hi all.

I have a parent category page with several child-categories.

When on the parent category page, which runs off a unique template, I’d like to display the latest 5 posts from each of the child categories.

Is there a way to query posts which are children of a category? There seems to be a query for children of posts/pages, but I can’t seem to make the same concept work using categories. The post/page parameter is used in the code I have so far below, although it doesn’t work (‘post_parent’ parameter).

<?php
if ( is_category() ) {
  $current_cat = get_query_var('cat');
  wp_list_categories('&title_li=&show_count=1&child_of='.$current_cat);
}
?>
<?php

// The Query
query_posts( 'post_parent='.$current_cat );

// The Loop
while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
	echo '<li>';
	the_title();
	echo '</li>';
endwhile;

// Reset Query
wp_reset_query();

?>

Thanks for any help/suggestions