featured content options have vanished

At some point amid recent updates, the ability to change my featured content has vanished. Well, sort of vanished. It works if I am using the theme straight out of the box (so to speak), but when I apply the child theme I've been using for ages all the featured content customization options disappear. The featured content I last set up still shows up, but I can't change it! Any idea what might be causing this? I'd really rather fix my child theme than redo all the customizing I've done over the years! (Of course, if enough things have changed, I realize I may have to start over :-( )