diff --git a/builders/pantheon-mariadb-arm.js b/builders/pantheon-mariadb-arm.js
index ce73b20..6c7f04c 100644
--- a/builders/pantheon-mariadb-arm.js
+++ b/builders/pantheon-mariadb-arm.js
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ module.exports = {
       password: 'pantheon',
       user: 'pantheon',
     },
-    healthcheck: 'mysql -uroot --silent --execute "SHOW DATABASES;"',
     port: '3306',
     defaultFiles: {
       database: 'my_custom.cnf',
@@ -41,6 +40,8 @@ module.exports = {
       // Change the me user
       options.meUser = 'mysql';
 
+      if (!options.healthcheck) options.healthcheck = require('../utils/get-mariadb-healthcheck')(options);
+
       const mariadb = {
         image: `mariadb:${options.version}`,
         command: 'docker-entrypoint.sh mysqld',
diff --git a/utils/get-mariadb-healthcheck.js b/utils/get-mariadb-healthcheck.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf67b74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utils/get-mariadb-healthcheck.js
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+'use strict';
+
+// checks to see if a setting is disabled
+module.exports = options => {
+  return [
+    'mysql',
+    `--host=${options.name}`,
+    `--user=${options.creds.user}`,
+    `--database=${options.creds.database}`,
+    `--password=${options.creds.password}`,
+    '--silent',
+    '--execute',
+    '"SHOW TABLES;"',
+  ].join(' ');
+};