Thread: Problem with Fork()

After I fork I appear to lose my variable the first time I try to execute a program. It will run the 2nd, 3rd,.... time but not the first. Below is my code.
This is part of the shell code I am writing, so everything is in a while loop. it appears to lose the execCommand variable. For instance with I run a ps command the first time and print execCommand after the for it comes out as a ?. Every other time though it comes out ok.

thank you.

Code:

childPid = fork();
      
      if (childPid < 0)
      {
        perror ("fork");
        return 0;
      }
      
      if (childPid == 0)
      {
        
        if (execlp (execCommand, execCommand,(char*)0) == -1)
          perror("exec");

      }
      /* Have the parent wait for child to complete */
      if (wait (&status) < 0)
        perror ("wait");