I have a bunch of <li> nodes that need to float left. The total sum of the width of these nodes when float left are larger than their parent container. Instead of the width of the parent node increasing, the <li> expand the height of the parent and essentially flow down to the next line.
Is there a CSS solution to this issue or will I need a jQuery script to alter the size of the parent node based on how many children are in it?
There is not a CSS solution. You can accomplish it with jQuery as you suggest though.