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Aisling Symes's family say they are devastated at the death of the toddler, but say there is some small comfort that her body has been found.
The family posted their remarks on a Facebook page set up while two-year-old Aisling was missing.
"I am extremely devastated to have to report to you that Aisling's body has been found in a drain near where she went missing," the message said.
They asked members of the public to pray for the family as "this is going to be the hardest time of our lives and we will need all the prayers we can get".
"If even the smallest positive can come from this at least we know we did all we could, it was a national effort, and thank you all for that, it did bring us together as a country, and proved at least that we are a nation full of caring and compassionate people, who genuinely want to help those in need, thank you all for that."
"Also, there is slight comfort in knowing that she is safe in heaven, and being held and looked after by God himself," the family said.
The Facebook page, called Find Aisling Symes, had by this morning more than 21,000 members.
More than 2000 people had placed messages of support for the family.
Police confident they did all they could
Police gave a press conference on Tuesday morning where they confirmed that they strongly believe the body found in a drain in west Auckland on Monday night was that of Aisling.
They say they have no idea how the two-year-old ended up 36 metres along the underground drain close to the Henderson property where she disappeared from eight days ago, but have not yet ruled out foul play.
Davey says he believed "it was more likely than not" that Aisling had been in the drain "from the start", even though it was repeatedly searched.
In the first hour of the search an officer looked into the entrance to the drain and called out Aisling's name.
The manhole cover was ajar about 10cm when the officer came to it, but there was no sign of a body.
He returned 15 minutes later and climbed down into the manhole and shone a torch up and down the drainpipe for a distance of about five metres.
Search and rescue squad members and Aisling's father searched the drain separately that night also.
Davey says the manhole cover was about 600mm wide and weighed about 20kg, well beyond the capacity of a child to move.
Police would now work on establishing how Aisling got into the drain.
Davey says it is unlikely she could have been saved if police had done anything different.
"I believe the police on the night did everything they could to find her and I am also sure we would not have been able to save her, even at that point."
He said the search team had kept an open mind about Aisling's disappearance and that was part of the reason they found her body.
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