Adjusting margins for dropdown menu list

[camasb]

I'm working on a dropdown menu - can anyone tell me how to get a 1em margin between the main menu list items and the topmost dropdown items? I have 1em margins between each dropdown list item = no problem... just can't figure out how to get the same margin between the main menu items and the topmost items that drop down. I tried margin-top and the cursor is not always able to jump the gap to reach the dropdown links, even with just a 0.5em space.

[seoskunk]

use padding

[camasb]

thanks...would you be willing to give an example as code? It's easier for me to learn that way.

[rocknbil]

Guessing you have a mix of Javascript and CSS . . . best to give us a code snippet to see what you're working with (no huge dumps please, try to provide just the relevant bits with anonymous links - use example.com.)