JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An 8-year-old boy with autism who was missing for more than two days is making a speedy recovery at Wolfson Children's Hospital, his parents said Tuesday.

Peyton Blodgett wandered away from his grandmother's house Saturday, and according to his parents, he was near death when rescuers in a helicopter spotted him Monday afternoon.

Peyton's parents said his kidneys were failing, his skin was gray and his eyes were sinking in when authorities found him. But on Tuesday, Peyton was sitting up and acting more like himself as each hour passed.

Video shows Peyton playing with his grandmother and father in the hospital for the first time since he was found.

"How long can a baby like that go without eating or drinking and being stuck?" said Brittany Blodgett, Peyton's mother. "And when you stay in one position, your muscles begin to deteriorate. And they say his muscles had begun to deteriorate."

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Deputy Leo describes spotting Peyton
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Brittany Blodgett and Sheriff Dobson

"Peyton was gray, he wasn't making any sound, and he looked like he wouldn't have made it another cold night in the woods in that spot," said Michael Blodgett, Peyton's father.

Peyton's parents said the toxins in their son's bloodstream have decreased every time the doctors check his kidneys. They said he won't need a kidney replacement or dialysis, and his condition has been upgraded from critical to serious.

"At 4:30 this morning, he asked me, 'Where's Bo?' That's our dog. So that tells me that his mind is getting away from being in shock and pain, so now he's recovering," Brittany Blodgett said.

She said Peyton couldn't even talk Monday because he had been screaming for hours in the woods and severely strained his voice. He was covered in mosquito bites and deep scratches from the brush.

Peyton's not complaining about any pain and is drinking fluids and asking for food, his parents said. They said they're putting together a plan to ensure Peyton is never able to wander away again.

"Master Locks on the doors with a key up high for us to reach and get it, and a tracking device is the best thing possible because he's ran from multiple people several times," Brittany Blodgett said.

She expects Peyton to remain in the hospital for the next several days and anticipates he'll be released by Monday.

Rescuers describe search, finding boy

More than 300 men and women from a number of different law enforcement and rescue agencies helped search for 8-year-old Peyton Blodgett.

He was missing for 49 and a half hours when they finally found him deep in the woods about a half-mile away from his home.

Searchers said it was like finding a needle in a haystack, but they came across Peyton in the middle of thick woods, battling the elements. And they got to him just in the knick of time.

"It was as thick as that before we went in," Jacksonville Sheriff's K-9 Officer Brian Hall said. "You had to chop your way through it."

Hall said he ran through the brush as fast as he could after a deputy in the helicopter above spotted something under a maple tree. Investigator Clem Leo, of the Baker County Sheriff's Office, was in the chopper, trying to guide officers to the boy.

"All I saw was a small, blue object, and I asked the pilot to circle around one more time so that I could confirm it," Leo said. "And at that time I asked him to get a little bit lower, which he did, and I told him, 'That looks like a little bit of pale skin.'"

Hall was the first person to get to the boy.

"As I turned in this corner, I could see him laying down under this batch of briers right in here," Hall said. "Laying right there in the fetal position. He had his back over on the side. And I came around the corner and he -- I didn't know if he was conscious or not, so I rubbed his back, patted him on the back and said, 'Peyton! Peyton!' And that's when he turned and kind of looked at me and gave me kind of a grunt. And he opened opened his eyes and looked at me. And that's when I knew -- I had a sigh of relief come over me."

Hall said he initially thought the worst.

"I hate to say it, but obviously I did, just because his color was kind of grayish looking and he wasn't moving at all," Hall said. "I got all the way up on him and he didn't move."

Peyton was really up against the elements in the woods. There is a thick underbrush on the ground with lots of thorns that can cut someone. Deputies said there are also snakes, bears, coyotes and wild boars in there. And once the sun sets, it can get quite chilly.

"I was just praying that he was alive," Leo said.

As Leo and the chopper hovered overhead, several officers on the ground picked Peyton up, gave him water and called for help.

After the officers found Peyton, they had to go back through the woods, navigate the brush, carrying him in their arms to an ambulance, which was waiting on the nearest dirt road.

It was a moment the officers will never forget -- one that Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson is so thankful for.

"It is just so emotional to sit back there this morning and look at my people and know -- I told them, 'We didn't plan this, but you came together and you did what we do as an agency,'" Dobson said. "We do care about people, and that showed."

Rescuers said they weren't sure Peyton would have survived another night. They said finding him was truly a miracle.