The following rearrangement may help,

# ... the loop
close( PARENT );
print "parent received: ";
print '.' while <CHILD>;
print "\n";
close( CHILD );
while( %pid ) { reap() }
[download]

That lets you draw down the buffer, making room for the other kids to print. It would also do no harm to try autoflushing the PARENT handle.

After Compline,
Zaxo