A bid for more help is being made for four special Timaru babies, the first quadruplets born in New Zealand in more than two decades.
At the moment home help for multiple births is capped at triplets. And while the 11-month-old MacDonald quads are doing just fine, the family's MP is pushing for extra assistance.
This family is very grateful for theassistance it gets from the Government - 1560 hours over 24 months helps pay a night nanny.
"We couldn't probably do it without it," Josh MacDonald, the quads' father, told 1 NEWS.
Kendall MacDonald, the quads' mother, added, "I don't think we would be half sane without it, because we need help".
But the legislation was set two decades ago, and is capped at triplets.
That's why the grandmother of the quads, who were born premature at just 28 weeks, pointed out the anomaly to Andrew Falloon, National MP for Rangitata.
"I think she could see that we were, well, we weren't struggling, but we could do with more help," Kendall MacDonald said.
Mr Falloon is proposing a member's bill, asking for a law change to provide extra help for families with more than triplets.
"Ultimately my proposal is about fairness. It's providing a bit more support to families like the MacDonalds. Every new parent out there knows how hard it can be to deal with a newborn sometimes," Mr Falloon said.
If the change goes ahead, the MacDonald family would get 380 more hours of help, and they'd have more time to use it.
The proposed 1940 hours over three years would cost just under $7000 more.
Andrew Falloon hopes the Government will back the plan and that his bill will pass by the end of the year.
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