diff --git a/minidom/src/element.rs b/minidom/src/element.rs
index b01adcca..6366fa2c 100644
--- a/minidom/src/element.rs
+++ b/minidom/src/element.rs
@@ -146,6 +146,9 @@ impl PartialEq for Element {
     fn eq(&self, other: &Self) -> bool {
         if self.name() == other.name() && self.ns() == other.ns() && self.attrs().eq(other.attrs())
         {
+            if self.nodes().count() != other.nodes().count() {
+                return false;
+            }
             self.nodes()
                 .zip(other.nodes())
                 .all(|(node1, node2)| node1 == node2)
@@ -978,6 +981,16 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(elem, elem4);
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn test_compare_empty_children() {
+        let elem1 = Element::bare("p", "");
+        let elem2 = Element::builder("p", "")
+            .append(Node::Element(Element::bare("span", "")))
+            .build();
+
+        assert_ne!(elem1, elem2);
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn test_from_reader_with_prefixes() {
         let xml = b"<foo><bar xmlns='baz'/></foo>";