diff --git a/src/conf/netdev_bandwidth_conf.c b/src/conf/netdev_bandwidth_conf.c
index 261718f3ef6cd09ba8fb12872db06ed2651bc1d8..5802eba1225d7db671b4474ffd297e7efb25acb3 100644
--- a/src/conf/netdev_bandwidth_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/netdev_bandwidth_conf.c
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ virNetDevBandwidthPtr
 virNetDevBandwidthParse(xmlNodePtr node)
 {
     virNetDevBandwidthPtr def = NULL;
-    xmlNodePtr cur = node->children;
+    xmlNodePtr cur;
     xmlNodePtr in = NULL, out = NULL;
 
     if (VIR_ALLOC(def) < 0) {
@@ -110,6 +110,8 @@ virNetDevBandwidthParse(xmlNodePtr node)
         goto error;
     }
 
+    cur = node->children;
+
     while (cur) {
         if (cur->type == XML_ELEMENT_NODE) {
             if (xmlStrEqual(cur->name, BAD_CAST "inbound")) {