Cheryl Sew Hoy Built Tiny Health to Help Families See What Doctors Can’t

Cheryl Sew Hoy built Tiny Health out of necessity and determination. She was trained as an engineer and shaped by years in the tech industry, where problems were solved through data and design. Motherhood brought her a challenge that neither data nor design could easily solve. Her first child struggled with eczema, food sensitivities, and restless sleep. Doctor visits left her with more questions than answers. She began to wonder if the gut played a larger role in early health than anyone was acknowledging.

That curiosity became her calling. Cheryl started reading everything she could find about the gut microbiome. The science was advancing quickly, yet parents had almost no access to it. Researchers were uncovering how early microbial life influences immunity and allergies, but families were told to simply wait and see. Cheryl saw a gap between discovery and care. Tiny Health grew from that space, created to give parents access to microbiome insights through simple at-home testing.

What Drives the Vision

Cheryl’s goal has never been to replace doctors. She wants to give families the information they need to make better decisions earlier. Tiny Health focuses on the first thousand days of life, from pregnancy through toddlerhood, when the gut microbiome is developing most rapidly. Those early microbial patterns influence digestion, allergies, and immunity. By giving parents data about what is happening inside the gut, Tiny Health helps them act before small issues grow into bigger ones.

For Cheryl, the company represents a different way of thinking about care. Parents should not need to be scientists to understand their child’s health. Tiny Health combines advanced sequencing with clear explanations that make sense to families. Each test produces a report that highlights which microbes are present, which are missing, and how those findings relate to a child’s stage of development. The goal is to replace confusion with clarity and to help parents feel informed rather than powerless.

How Tiny Health Works

Science Meets Family: Tiny Health begins in the home. Parents collect a sample using an easy testing kit and send it to the company’s lab. There, scientists analyze the gut microbiome and prepare a detailed but accessible report. Families learn how their gut health compares with research-based benchmarks for their age and condition. Behind the process is a team that blends microbiology, pediatric expertise, and technology. The result is science that feels personal and useful, not distant or intimidating.

From Infancy Through Adulthood: Tiny Health started with tests for infants but now serves every stage of life. There are programs for pregnancy, postpartum recovery, childhood, and women’s health. The company also created the Gut Maturation Index, a model that estimates a baby’s microbiome age and shows how development compares with expected patterns. This helps families and healthcare providers see early signs of imbalance and address them through diet, lifestyle, or further medical advice. Each new product carries the same principle that guided Cheryl from the start. When people can see what is happening inside their bodies, they can take better care of themselves and each other.

Why the Early Days Matter

The first two years of life shape the foundation of the human microbiome. The gut is seeded at birth and evolves quickly based on delivery method, breastfeeding, antibiotic use, and environmental exposure. These early influences can affect how the immune system develops and how resilient a person becomes to allergies and inflammation. Cheryl experienced how little awareness existed around this. Tiny Health helps parents understand what is forming beneath the surface and gives them the tools to make small adjustments that can strengthen long-term health.

The company’s work does not diagnose or prescribe. It illuminates what is often invisible. Families who once had no answers can now see whether certain beneficial bacteria are missing or whether the gut appears out of balance. This visibility builds confidence and encourages small, meaningful actions such as dietary changes or probiotic support guided by evidence. What began as one mother’s need for answers has become a way for thousands of families to approach health with knowledge rather than guesswork.

The Future of Tiny Health

Cheryl leads Tiny Health with a steady mix of technical insight and empathy. She has built a company that grows carefully and values trust over speed. Tiny Health does not profit from affiliate product sales or external partnerships that could influence its recommendations. It earns trust by being transparent and by teaching families how to interpret their data with honesty and context.

The company continues to expand, building partnerships with clinics and wellness providers while deepening its scientific research. It has raised funding to grow its technology and team, yet Cheryl’s focus remains the same. She wants Tiny Health to be the standard for microbiome literacy, a company that helps people understand themselves from the inside out.

Cheryl Sew Hoy turned a deeply personal problem into a company that is changing how families think about health. Tiny Health shows that science can live at home and that information once limited to research labs can become part of everyday care. The company reminds parents that they do not have to wait for illness to begin understanding wellness. Cheryl created not just a business but a bridge between discovery and daily life, built on the belief that knowledge, when shared, can change how we grow, heal, and live.

Cheryl Sew Hoy built Tiny Health from a mother’s search for answers and turned it into a company that helps families see health in a new way.