显示来自php外部的while循环的项目总数

I have a PHP while loop and i'm trying to use a counter to display the total number of items (.question) that are within it. I'm trying to echo the contents of $child_i outside of the while loop to do this but the code below doesn't work. Whats the best way of achieving this?

EDIT Updated to show full code

<?php if( have_rows('faqs') ): ?>
   <ul class="responsive-accordion responsive-accordion-default bm-larger">
      <?php while( have_rows('faqs') ): the_row(); ?>
        <li>
           <div class="responsive-accordion-head"><span class="ico arrow-right"></span><?php the_sub_field('category_name'); ?> <span class="faq-counter">
           <!-- TRYING TO ECHO $CHILD_I ON THE LINE BELOW BUT NOT WORKING -->
           <?php echo($child_i); ?> Questions</span></div>
           <!-- $CHILD_I IS DEFINED ON THE NEXT LINE -->
           <?php if( have_rows('questions') ): $child_i = 0; ?>
              <!-- THIS ECHO WORKS -->
              <div class="responsive-accordion-panel <?php echo($child_i); ?>">
                <?php while( have_rows('questions') ): the_row(); ?>
                  <div class="question">
                     <h6><?php the_sub_field('question'); ?></h6>   
                     <p><?php the_sub_field('answer'); ?></p>
                  </div>
                <?php $child_i++; endwhile; ?>
            </div>
           <?php endif; //if( get_sub_field('questions') ): ?>
           </div>
        </li>   
   <?php endwhile; // while( has_sub_field('to-do_lists') ): ?>
  </ul>
<?php endif; // if( get_field('to-do_lists') ): ?>

Try this

$questions = get_field('questions'); $size=count($questions); echo $size;