diff --git a/integration-tests/helpers.js b/integration-tests/helpers.js
index 1be229280ad..a7f2b61ca47 100644
--- a/integration-tests/helpers.js
+++ b/integration-tests/helpers.js
@@ -355,6 +355,14 @@ function telemetryForwarder (expectedTelemetryPoints) {
     }
     msgs = msgs.map(msg => {
       const [telemetryType, data] = msg.split('\t')
+      let parsed
+      try {
+        parsed = JSON.parse(data)
+      } catch (e) {
+        console.log(msg)
+        console.log(data)
+        throw new SyntaxError(`error parsing data: ${e.message}\n${data}`)
+      }
       return [telemetryType, JSON.parse(data)]
     })
     await fs.unlink(process.env.FORWARDER_OUT)
diff --git a/integration-tests/init.spec.js b/integration-tests/init.spec.js
index f30f7e5f9da..90acb91eaf7 100644
--- a/integration-tests/init.spec.js
+++ b/integration-tests/init.spec.js
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ true
   })
 }
 
-describe('init.js', () => {
+describe.only('init.js', () => {
   useSandbox()
 
   testInjectionScenarios('require', 'init.js', false)
diff --git a/packages/dd-trace/src/telemetry/init-telemetry.js b/packages/dd-trace/src/telemetry/init-telemetry.js
index 452cb565145..f82093d815a 100644
--- a/packages/dd-trace/src/telemetry/init-telemetry.js
+++ b/packages/dd-trace/src/telemetry/init-telemetry.js
@@ -60,5 +60,6 @@ function sendTelemetry (name, tags = []) {
     stdio: 'pipe',
     shell: true
   })
-  proc.stdin.end(JSON.stringify({ metadata, points }))
+  const bytes = JSON.stringify({ metadata, points })
+  proc.stdin.end(bytes)
 }