I have been thinking that the diaper company's have been doing this for a while now. I have 4 kids ages 14, 13, 2 and 9 months.
My first 2 kids never wore a size bigger then a size 3. I remember my daughter was completely trained by 3.
Now my 2 younger ones are in a 6 (the 2 year old) ND a 3 (the 9 month old).
Not only do I think they are giving you less in the boxes now, but I think they are also changing the weight limits on the diapers so you have to buy the bigger sizes which contain less diapers.

Can we just stick to the issue? Cloth diapers are a personal choice. Just like nursing and every other thing that is related to child rearing.

Anway, I like the regular Pampers as opposed to cruisers. You get more per box and they fit just as well. If you are registered with Pampers.com you can get coupons in the mail. Plus I like entering the codes for free stuff. There are always coupons in the Sunday paper as well. I have found that Target has good prices on them and they've had promotions the last 2 weeks for their value size boxed where you get gift card.

Why do I suspect Wal-Mart is behind so much of this shrinkery? As America's retailing behemoth, they stand to lose a lot if their (mostly unaffluent) shoppers start seeing higher prices across the board. Those higher prices lead people to actually start consuming less, leaving things on the store shelf, like fruit snax, and paper towels.

There's a sort of snowballing effect here. People start out by realizing they can't afford the same cart of groceries as before, and, before long, it's the '70s all over again, with coupon clubs, homemade pancake syrup, and consumer segments on the evening news showing us how to make a pound of hamburger feed 8. People might start maintaining and repairing things instead of buying new. WM doesn't want us fixing stuff and finding ways to enlarge our casseroles, even if it's for our own good.

I recommend writing every manufacturer of goods you know is making smaller packages, telling them that you find this practice reprehensible.

I like product shrinkage versus raising prices. However, this shrinkage is not desirable. If I had to buy diapers, I would prefer a price increase over the product size shrinkage.

When we did plastic dipes, we bought 'em at Costco. Cheap + the occassional coupon.

Wonder why when we're supposedly so concerned about $$, folks still don't want to give up their "creature comforts"?

@Trai_Dep: I'm sure Victoria's Secret is working on the marketing as we speak.

Thank god our youngest (and last) just started pooping in the potty. Unfortunatly I now have to start planning that trip to Disney World we promised him.

The outside is a leak proof, reusable, washable shell. The inside is a flushable liner. It's actually pretty clever.

But on the Pampers issue, hey, someone's got to pay Elmo's appearance fee, right? They obviously had to reduce the number of diapers to pay for his face to be on your kid's butt. Won't SOMEONE think of Elmo and his needs?

If storage and supply chain is an issue, cloth might make sense. Out here in the suburbs, we blow the horn of plenty loudly and frequently. I can store a gross of diapers.

@MexiFinn: That's exactly what I was thinking. Also, if you smoke while pregnant, your baby will be smaller. Oh, hell, these days you may as well just cork the kid.

For me, living in NYC, the annoyance of always having to get diapers from the store (at $0.50-$0.75 each) was what got me.

It's so much easier to stick a modern style cloth diaper in the machine and run it a few times, than to deal with getting (and disposing of) pampers.

The biggest con is the stupid product names. My child wears "bumgenius". A great product with a ridiculous name. [Worst mommy product name "My Brest Friend" nursing pillow"]

Diarrhea is diarrhea. Cloth is the same as disposables here.

I'm not really an environmentalist. I'm just lazy.

Baby Cheapskate blog does a good job of tracking diaper prices and sales, too, for those who buy.

@Mills: I was going to mention that same controversy from years back. It seems Procter & Gamble still haven't learned their lesson; they'll remember when all the letters start pouring in and they notice reduced sales.

Thanks scaredy-cat "green" parents! ;-)

@Elvisisdead: I'm with you there. The extra money for never having to wash or reuse a diaper has been more than worth it for me. The rest of you can keep your cloth diapers along with all of their wonderfulness.

Although my father tells me about the diaper services they had back when I was a baby. Something like that might actually make it worth it.

Following that same logic, we shouldn't use diaper cream because the irritation from diaper rash would be incentive to not wet the diaper, either. Really, diapers in general are a human health and convenience issue. People use disposable diapers to minimize the health risks of dealing with human fecal matter, no matter the human from whence it came. They also use them for the same reason that we use paper towels, napkins, and tissues - convenience. For the former two, we use kitchen towels and napkins. Neither of those get shit on, so I'm OK with washing those (in bleach). Handkerchiefs are foul, as well. Use a tissue and throw it out. Why keep a bacteria-laden rag in your pocket?

@purplesun: How is $80/month cheaper than $32/month? Poop doesn't phase me, but I don't seek it out or prolong contact with it for any longer than absolutely necessary. I've been pooped ON, but it wasn't fun, and poop on cloth is NOT cool.

@purplesun: Are you claiming $20/week is less than $32/month?

Diapers are the main reason I got a Sam's Club membership.

And after years of changing diapers it is still disgusting.

I wonder if consumers will react to this the way people did when some company tried to reduce the number of tampons in a pack. I have unfortunately learned to live with reducing quantity's of food but not products which have a set number of items that people use often.

@sharkd: Not to mention fungal infections, diaper rash, etc.

Thankfully, we're on cloth diapers now, although the disposables come in handy while traveling.

@Elvisisdead: One word: Bleach.

In my town, diaper service for my kiddo ran about $20/week. If it was just a little wet, washing it with some baking soda took care of it pretty quickly. Plus, potty training was a lot easier.

And it's amazing how quickly poopy ceases to phase you.

I recently created a mini-spreadsheet on diaper pricing after noticing this trend. Rather than rely on any single store (since manufacturers package differently for each one), I looked at the cost per diaper. The price also varies by toddler size!

Basically it's (the package price / # of diapers) = $ per diaper.

The cheapest price I found was a toss-up between Amazon and 1-800-diapers @ $0.25 to $0.28 per diaper for the name brands and Target for their brand (on sale at $0.18 per diaper).

There have been quite a few "grocery shrink ray" stories lately.

Is this not just our crazy inflation at work here?

I mean, either the manufacturers of all these products can raise prices, or they can leave them alone to avoid the sticker shock, and reduce size.

Either way, we are going to be paying more for less.

@zentex: As was I. People used black powder rifles to hunt before smokeless powder and cartridges, too. A service would be the only way I would consider it, but when I can buy a box big enough for the whole month for $32 from Costco, it can't possibly be cheaper.

@nobody - frankly, the risk of E coli contamination of my washing machine and entire family isn't worth it. The one time you forget to put the bleach in with the rags.....

Just waiting for an idiot to recommend following my kid around with a bowl and clicker-training her from 6 months...

but then again, this was in the 70's. YMMV I guess

Then, a year or two later, after running another focus group study, they discover that now we prefer larger, value/family sizes. So that's what they give us, sometimes at a slightly lower price.

If we could only figure out what we want, and STICK TO IT, then prices would stabilize. It's all our fault. Really.

@Elvisisdead: The problem I had with the biodegradeable/flushable inserts was that there was this whole procedure for flushing them. If you weren't home and didn't have the "stick" to stir in the toilet you ended up throwing it out anyway or you risk clogging the toilet.

Yeah, and as much as I want to help reduce the waste we generate, I just can't bring myself to wash that many cloth diapers.

As the dad of a toddler who had diarrhea yesterday - I want no part of scraping loose poo off a cotton rag before I put it in my washing machine to swirl around in a big fecal matter stew just to call it "green". Before anyone pipes the frick up about cloth diapers, think about it.

How do you explain that to my 22 month old twins! I have to get them potty trained ASAP.

(I'm done)

If your baby is into "cruising," then we have bigger issues than Grocery Shrink Ray.

/obligatory cloth diaper comment that I don't really support