JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<div class="title" id="MyDiv">
    
    
    <em> help Text </em>
   I am text node
   <a class="edit">Edit</a>
</div>

JavaScript

window.onload = function() {
    var oDiv = document.getElementById("MyDiv");
    var firstText = "";
    for (var i = 0; i < oDiv.childNodes.length; i++) {
        var curNode = oDiv.childNodes[i];
        whitespace = /^\s*$/;
        console.log(curNode.nodeName,curNode.nodeType,whitespace.test(curNode.nodeValue));
        if (curNode.nodeName === "#text" && !(whitespace.test(curNode.nodeValue))) {
            firstText = curNode.nodeValue;
            break;
        }
    }
    alert(firstText,i);
};