For today’s parents, questions about their children’s health and well-being don’t wait for office hours. They surface at 2 a.m. when a baby spikes a fever, during a grocery run when a toddler melts down, or in the quiet panic of wondering whether something is “normal” or a sign to worry. Increasingly, those moments send parents down digital rabbit holes – Google searches, social media threads, and general-purpose AI tools – where answers are abundant but often contradictory, unverified, or anxiety-inducing.
Avocado Health was built to change that.
Launched by husband-and-wife founders Hans Kullberg and Cristina Bernardo, Avocado Health is a 24/7, SMS-based parenting support platform that delivers instant, personalized, evidence-based guidance through text message or WhatsApp. No apps, portals, or friction. Just timely support in the moments parents need it most.
A Platform Designed for How Parents Actually Live
Avocado Health meets parents where they already are: on their phones. The platform operates entirely via SMS, a deliberate choice rooted in accessibility and behavior. Text messages are read quickly and consistently, making them ideal for urgent, emotionally charged moments when parents don’t have time or bandwidth to download an app or sift through long articles.
Through a hybrid Human + AI model, Avocado Health combines trusted AI with access to real human expertise. Its AI is constrained to thousands of clinically vetted resources curated by pediatricians, therapists, and child development experts, while more complex or sensitive situations can be escalated to Child Life Specialists and parenting professionals.
The result feels less like a chatbot and more like a calm, knowledgeable presence in a parent’s pocket, one that starts with empathy, acknowledges emotion, and then offers clear, actionable next steps.
Built From Personal Experience, Not Abstract Theory
The mission behind Avocado Health is deeply personal. Co-founders Hans and Cristina are parents of five, including their daughter Aviva, who was born full-term and healthy in 2020 before enduring multiple unexplained hospitalizations in her first ten months. Despite care from more than 30 clinicians, no diagnosis was ever identified. Aviva passed away in November 2020; the cause remains unknown.
In the aftermath of that loss, Hans and Cristina made a commitment to build something that would ensure other parents never have to navigate uncertainty alone. That promise became Avocado Health.
Rather than attempting to replace doctors or clinicians, the platform was designed to complement them, filling the gaps between visits, after hours, and during moments when parents hesitate to call for fear of overreacting or being dismissed.
“We don’t diagnose or treat,” the founders emphasize. “We help parents feel confident enough to know when to wait, when to worry, and when to seek care.”
Evidence-Based, Not Internet-Based
One of Avocado Health’s defining principles is its commitment to evidence-based guidance.
While general AI tools can generate convincing responses, they often pull from the open internet, including blogs, forums, and outdated sources, creating real risks when applied to children’s health and development. Avocado Health takes a different approach by limiting its AI to a curated knowledge base drawn from pediatric centers of excellence, professional associations, and clinically reviewed resources.
If a question falls outside that scope, the platform is designed to say so, escalating to human support or directing parents to appropriate clinical care rather than “hallucinating” an answer.
This emphasis on trust extends to privacy as well. Avocado Health is HIPAA-compliant, with conversations encrypted and de-identified, allowing parents to ask sensitive questions without fear of misuse or exposure.
Proactive Support Beyond Crisis Moments
While Avocado Health is invaluable during moments of panic, its impact goes further. The platform also provides proactive developmental awareness through gentle milestone prompts, helping parents understand what to expect as their child grows. By normalizing variation while highlighting when professional input may be helpful, Avocado Health encourages earlier conversations with clinicians and earlier access to resources like early intervention services, where timing can significantly influence outcomes.
This approach helps counter the guilt, shame, and stigma that often prevent parents from speaking up, particularly in under-resourced communities.
Because Avocado Health is SMS-based, it works on any phone and requires no downloads, making it accessible to families who are often left out of app-based health solutions. Multilingual support, beginning with Spanish, is planned, further expanding reach and equity.
A Broader Vision for Healthcare and Families
Beyond individual households, Avocado Health has implications for the broader healthcare ecosystem.
Early pilots suggest the platform can handle a significant portion of routine parenting questions that currently burden nurses, care coordinators, and community health workers, reducing avoidable urgent care visits and easing strain on already overstretched systems. Healthcare organizations, employers, and community health centers can onboard the platform quickly, often in under an hour, with minimal workflow disruption.
But for the founders, success isn’t measured solely in adoption metrics or revenue. Avocado Health defines its north star as parent confidence, the belief that informed, supported parents make better decisions, engage more effectively with care systems, and create healthier outcomes for their families over time.
Why Avocado Health Matters Now
Avocado Health is a product of convergence: advances in AI, the ubiquity of text messaging, rising parental stress, widespread misinformation, and an overburdened healthcare system. Parents are already seeking answers constantly. Avocado Health ensures those answers are trustworthy, timely, and delivered with empathy.
In doing so, the platform reframes parenting support as essential infrastructure available in the moments that matter most.
Spencer Hulse is the Editorial Director at Grit Daily. He is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and covering breaking news.
