query_posts "showposts=" not working

I have a multilingual site (WPML) for which I need to insert a manual query. The ‘showposts=??’ operation is not working, in the code example below. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

<?php
  if (ICL_LANGUAGE_CODE == 'en') {
 	$categories = get_categories("child_of=7&showposts=3&orderby=ID&exclude=40,38,41,42");
	echo '<h3>English Title</h3>';

  } elseif (ICL_LANGUAGE_CODE == 'es') {
 $categories = get_categories("child_of=10&showposts=3&orderby=ID&exclude=39,43,44,45");
    echo '<h3>Spanish Title</h3>';
  }
?>
		<?php foreach ($categories as $cat) { ?>
        <?php query_posts("cat=$cat->cat_ID&showposts=6"); ?>

	<Do stuff>

<?php }?>