How it works
Gut health, step by step
From test to insights and personalized support – we help you understand and support your family's gut health.
1. Take stool sample & answer questions
Collect a small stool sample at home and answer a few questions about diet, health, and daily life. This context helps us understand why your child’s (or your) gut looks the way it does.
See tests
2. Get your personal insights report
Your results are delivered in the app as a clear, personalized gut health report. See which bacteria are thriving, which are missing, and what it means for digestion and immune health.
See an example report
3. Get your tailored action plan
Based on your results, you’ll receive a personalized action plan with food recommendations, supplement suggestions and simple habits – adapted to your or your child’s age and everyday routines.
4. Book your 1:1 consultation
Book an online session with one of our certified nutritionists. Go through the results, ask questions, and get help adjusting the plan to your family’s needs.
5. Implement changes & retest
Gut health isn’t static. It changes with age, lifestyle, and changing needs. Retesting lets you follow your our your child's progress, update recommendations, and keep supporting the gut at every stage.
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FAQ
For children, the answer depends partly on age. child’s gut microbiome is constantly developing from birth through childhood, so following how it changes over time often provides even more insight than looking at a single snapshot.
From one microbiome test, you can learn about your child’s:
- Share of friendly bacteria that support healthy growth and development
- Share of unfriendly bacteria, which in higher amounts may increase infection risk or crowd out beneficial microbes
- Overall microbiome development, since the pace of maturation is closely linked to healthy growth
- Levels of bacteria that support the immune system
- Presence of bacteria that produce important metabolites, such as butyrate
- Capacity to maintain a healthy gut barrier
- Ability to metabolize vitamins, proteins, and fats
- Associations with outcomes later in life, such as crying, fussing, or BMI
Most importantly, your results come with personalized, evidence-based recommendations – covering diet, personal care products, environmental factors, and supplements (when needed). These are reviewed by our medical team and discussed with you in a 1:1 consultation with a certified Nutrition & Health Coach, so you feel fully supported in taking the next steps.
The Alba test is designed to be simple and stress-free. You collect a small stool sample, either directly from your baby’s diaper or for older kids using/adults the stool catcher included in the kit. The collection itself takes just a couple of minutes.
Everything you need is provided, along with clear step-by-step instructions. Once the sample is collected, place it in the prepaid return envelope and send it back to us. We’ll handle the rest and keep you updated along the way.
Alba is for both for children from 0 to 17 years old, and for adults 18+ years.
For newborns, the recommendations also includes guidance for breastfeeding mothers and insights into how your chosen infant formula (if used) may influence your baby’s gut health.
In early life, the gut microbiome develops rapidly – changing as your child grows, starts new foods, gets sick, recovers, and explores the world. Because of this natural evolution, testing every 3–6 months provides the most useful picture of how your child’s gut health is developing over time.
Most families choose to retest regularly, and there’s real value in doing so. Each new test helps you:
- Track your child’s microbiome development and see whether it’s maturing as expected
- Understand how diet, antibiotics, or lifestyle changes have affected their gut
- See whether previous recommendations are working, and adjust them if needed
- Get updated guidance as your child’s needs change with age
- Spot potential issues early before they become bigger challenges
With your test, you also receive a 1:1 consultation with a certified Nutrition & Health Coach, who helps you interpret the results, understand the progress, and decide on the best next steps for your child.
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From a stool sample, we collect the DNA of all gut microbes. By looking at their DNA, we can see which bacteria are present and what they are doing in your child’s gut. We analyze bacterial DNA only – we do not analyze your or your child’s own DNA.
Your child’s microbiome report gives you a clear, in-depth picture of their gut health – and, most importantly, practical guidance you can use right away.
With deep shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we analyse over 30,000 bacterial species and strains to show not just which microbes are present, but what they do for digestion, immunity, brain health, and overall wellbeing.
Your report includes:
- Gut health overview – how your child’s microbiome compares to a healthy reference
- Key functions explained – what their bacteria mean for digestion, immunity, brain health, and everyday wellbeing
- Deep-dive insights – detailed explanations of each finding, with tailored actions
- Personalized recommendations – nutrition and lifestyle guidance created with our scientific and coaching teams
- Probiotic guidance (if needed) – recommendations on specific probiotics tailored to your child’s microbiome
Everything is presented clearly in the Alba app, designed to make complex science easy to understand – and easy to act on.
Want to learn more? You can download a full example report here.
You’ll receive your results within 3-4 weeks from the time you send in your child’s sample. When they’re ready, everything will be available directly in the Alba app, along with your personalized recommendations.
No – Alba Health does not provide medical diagnoses. Instead, we give you detailed insights into your child’s gut microbiome and a personalized action plan with practical strategies to support and strengthen their gut health. If anything in the results indicates that further evaluation may be helpful, we’ll let you know.
Yes! Many children are selective eaters, and our recommendations are designed with that in mind. We tailor all guidance to your family’s reality – offering practical, flexible tips that fit your child’s preferences and routines.
Our certified Nutrition & Health Coaches can also support you in navigating picky eating, helping you introduce small, realistic changes that still have a meaningful impact on your child’s gut health.
Alba Health is built on world-leading research in children’s gut health. We run Sweden’s largest study in this field together with Uppsala University, and our foundation is over 25 years of research led by Prof. Willem de Vos (Alba's co-founder) – a globally recognized scientist with more than 800 publications. We also collaborate with major international studies, including the HELMi cohort at the University of Helsinki, one of the world’s largest infant gut microbiome studies.
Our multidisciplinary team in medicine, nutrition, and research has collectively published over 1,600 scientific articles, ensuring that every recommendation is grounded in strong scientific evidence.
Alba uses research-grade gut microbiome testing (deep shotgun metagenomics) performed in a certified laboratory, giving you highly accurate and actionable insights you can trust.