Recovering from "shaken baby syndrome"

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - In just a few days, a North Tonawanda man will be sentenced for assaulting his infant son . News 4's Rachel Kingston shows us how the little guy's is recovering, a year-and-a-half later.

There's nothing "typical" about a typical day for the boy they call "Jay-J..."

Jay J's stepgrandmother, Tabitha Retzer said, "On a day-to-day basis, he has five different medications, three times a day, he has to take. He's a special diet, so that has to all be weighed out -- everything to tenths of a gram."

Jay-J has Lennox-Gastaut Sydrome, a neurological condition that causes severe seizures.

"His worst day was almost 200 seizures. And that was just painful to watch," added Retzer.

Doctors believe Jay-J developed L-G-S after being abused by his father as an infant.

Jay-J's maternal grandparents, who now have full custody of him, have struggled to put that behind them.

Retzer said, "It breaks your heart to think about it, so you kind of have to put that aside, in order to be active for him in the moment. He needs me now, not to be dwelling on what happened to him six, eight, ten, twelve months ago."

Now, at 19 months old, Jay-J receives physical and occupational therapy, as well as special education.

He just learned to crawl this spring, and is moving on to the next challenge of walking.

"One of the things he just started doing was holding something in each hand. Something that you don't even think is a developmental thing," Retzer added.

Retzer said, "But his brain has been so disrupted, the neurologists say he has a very disorganized process in his brain. And so that's really hindered a lot of learning."

Jay-J will probably have some cognitive difficulties all his life.

But his family is confident he'll face them just like he does now -- with a smile on his face.

"It's like people with big families, you say to that mom, "How do you cook for eight kids?" And she says, "Well, you know, you just do it," added Retzer.