Is this child you are talking about really a child of the component that you want to access it from? In this case, v-ref is indeed the answer:
// in the code of the parent component, access the referenced child component like this:
this.$refs.detailsChild<!-- Template of the parent component, assuming your child Component is called Details -->
<details v-ref:details-child></details>relevant API Documentation: http://vuejs.org/api/#v-ref