With the Wind with Dr. Paul — Show 200: Pediatric Perspectives: Focusing on Chronic Disease with Liz Mumper, M.D.

What's driving the dramatic rise in chronic childhood illness — and what can parents do about it?

In this episode of Pediatric Perspectives, I'm joined by Liz Mumper, M.D. — a pediatrician with 45 years of clinical experience, founder of the Rimland Center for Integrative Medicine, and a leading trainer of clinicians who work with children with special needs through MAPS Medical Academy and Pediatric Special Needs. Dr. Mumper is also the author of Kids and COVID: Costly Mistakes That Must Never Happen Again. She is one of the physicians I most respect in this field, and this conversation is one I've wanted to have for a long time.

In this episode, we cover:

• How the landscape of pediatrics has shifted over four decades — from acute, treatable illness to pervasive chronic disease
• The dramatic rise in autism, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, obesity, eczema, asthma, and autoimmune conditions — and the contributing factors both physicians have observed in practice
• What parents planning to have children can do to prepare — including nutrition, toxin reduction, and key supplementation benchmarks
• Clinical concerns about vaccine administration during pregnancy and infancy, including the aluminum load when multiple vaccines are given simultaneously
• What Dr. Mumper observed in the unvaccinated siblings of children with vaccine-related health changes in her practice
• Practical steps for reducing environmental toxin exposure in the home, and why acetaminophen deserves more caution than it typically receives

A Different Pediatric Landscape

Dr. Mumper began her residency in 1980. She describes how the appeal of pediatrics at the time was its responsiveness — you treated a pneumonia, an ear infection, and the child got better. The contrast with adult internal medicine, where chronic illness dominated, was stark. That contrast no longer exists in the same way.

Over the past three decades, both of us have watched chronic conditions become the norm rather than the exception in pediatric practice. The numbers are difficult to ignore. When Dr. Mumper was a medical student, she was told she might never see another case of autism — the prevalence was approximately 1 in 5,000 children. The latest figures now show approximately 1 in 31 children overall, and in California, where tracking is particularly thorough, the rate among boys is approximately 1 in 12.5. The best available research, she notes, suggests at least 79% of that increase reflects actual new cases — not simply broader diagnostic criteria. Beyond autism, we have seen parallel increases in type 2 diabetes in children as young as seven or eight — what used to be called adult-onset diabetes — along with obesity, eczema, allergies, asthma, and a range of autoimmune conditions. Well over 50% of children today have at least one chronic condition, defined as something that does not resolve in a matter of days.

Preparing Before Pregnancy — and Protecting Early Childhood

Dr. Mumper's recommendation to families thinking about having children is to begin preparing at least six months to a year before conception. That means cleaning up diet, eating as organically as possible, and reducing exposure to pesticides, chemical cleaning products, and endocrine-disrupting compounds. It also means ensuring key nutritional foundations are in place: adequate omega-3 supplementation, vitamin D levels optimized to above 50 nanograms per deciliter — not merely the 30 ng/dL laboratory threshold for "normal," but a level sufficient for genuine immune and neurological benefit — and the right forms of B vitamins, including methylated folate rather than synthetic folic acid, which matters significantly for fetal biochemistry.

On the question of vaccines in pregnancy, both Dr. Mumper and I share serious reservations. The concept of maternal immune activation — where immune stimulation during pregnancy can affect fetal neurodevelopment — is well established in the research literature. At a time when the maternal immune system is naturally calibrated toward tolerance of the developing fetus, introducing a strong immune stimulus raises questions that have not been adequately studied. This is not a fringe concern; it is a mechanistic one grounded in immunology.

Preparing Before Pregnancy — and Protecting Early Childhood

Dr. Mumper's recommendation to families thinking about having children is to begin preparing at least six months to a year before conception. That means cleaning up diet, eating as organically as possible, and reducing exposure to pesticides, chemical cleaning products, and endocrine-disrupting compounds. It also means ensuring key nutritional foundations are in place: adequate omega-3 supplementation, vitamin D levels optimized to above 50 nanograms per deciliter — not merely the 30 ng/dL laboratory threshold for "normal," but a level sufficient for genuine immune and neurological benefit — and the right forms of B vitamins, including methylated folate rather than synthetic folic acid, which matters significantly for fetal biochemistry.

On the question of vaccines in pregnancy, both Dr. Mumper and I share serious reservations. The concept of maternal immune activation — where immune stimulation during pregnancy can affect fetal neurodevelopment — is well established in the research literature. At a time when the maternal immune system is naturally calibrated toward tolerance of the developing fetus, introducing a strong immune stimulus raises questions that have not been adequately studied. This is not a fringe concern; it is a mechanistic one grounded in immunology.

What the Clinical Record Shows

Dr. Mumper spent years running a practice focused on children with neurodevelopmental and chronic health challenges, which gave her an unusually clear view of patterns across large numbers of families. When she reviewed her patient charts, she found that 23% of families reported their child appeared to deteriorate following the MMR vaccine, and approximately 25% identified a cluster of vaccines given simultaneously — often at a time when the child was already acutely ill — as the point of change. She was never persuaded by the Academy's guidance, active in the 1990s and 2000s, that a sick child presenting for another reason should be caught up on vaccines at that visit. An immune system already occupied with an acute illness is not positioned to respond optimally to multiple additional immune stimuli.

The observation that has stayed with me across decades of practice is the one Dr. Mumper puts plainly: she cannot think of a single example in which an unvaccinated sibling — often the younger child of a family who had watched an older child's health change following vaccination — was not the healthier sibling. These children typically did not develop the eczema, the asthma, or the autism that prompted the family's concern in the first place. That is a clinical signal that deserves serious research attention, not dismissal.

Reducing Toxic Load — and Trusting Your Instincts

On the environmental side, Dr. Mumper's practical guidance is straightforward: avoid homes with lead paint or mold history, reduce pesticide use indoors and outdoors, use natural cleaning products, and prioritize whole foods over fast food and ultra-processed products. A single fast food meal, she notes, elevates inflammatory cytokines for hours — a meaningful consideration for any child managing a chronic condition like asthma or eczema. She also raises real concern about glyphosate in common agricultural products, particularly corn and wheat.

On acetaminophen, Dr. Mumper explains that it depletes glutathione — the body's primary intracellular antioxidant — by approximately 30%. Glutathione supports gut lining integrity, mitochondrial function, immune balance, and detoxification. This is especially relevant around the time of vaccination, when the last thing you want is a significant reduction in the body's protective capacity. My own position is direct: remove acetaminophen from the house entirely.

Dr. Mumper closed with a message I want to amplify: trust your instincts. Parental and maternal instincts have been developed over generations. If something feels wrong about your child, or about a recommended intervention, that sense deserves to be taken seriously by any clinician you work with. If it isn't, that is useful information about whether that clinician is the right fit for your family.

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