The toxic haze shrouding the Indian capital, Delhi, spares no-one, but its children are counting the biggest cost of the city's worsening and recurrent pollution problem.
Nowhere is this more evident than at paediatricians' clinics. The BBC visited one such facility in Noida, near Delhi, on a weekday morning a few days back.
In a packed waiting hall outside the doctor's consulting room, anxious parents stood in line with children sneezing, coughing or complaining of breathing difficulties.
Most started falling ill in October, when the capital's air quality dipped to hazardous levels and waiting times for doctor's appointments had stretched longer than usual.
Toxic air is a recurring problem in Delhi and across parts of northern India during the winter.
There isn't a single cause behind the problem, but a mix of factors like low wind speeds, industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust, dropping temperatures and the seasonal burning of crop stubble in neighbouring states.
Since last month, Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) - which measures different types of pollutants, including the level of fine particulate matter PM2.5 that can clog lungs - has been hovering between 300 and 400. This is more than 20 times the limit recommended by the World Health Organization.
Readings above 400 affect all healthy people and seriously impact those with existing diseases, but high exposure to PM2.5 hits children and the elderly the hardest.
Across the capital, many hospitals have seen an influx of children who are sick because of the unbreathable air.
These particles can affect the child's immunity, especially because their system is still developing and the cells are learning an immune response in the early years, Dr Shishir Bhatnagar, the paediatrician at the Noida clinic, told the BBC.
These cases have increased tenfold in recent years. In my experience, if I normally see an average 20-30% of patients with such complaints, that number shoots up to 50-70% during the pollution season.
Each year, the government rolls out emergency steps - halting construction, banning polluting vehicles - to curb the smog. This year, it even tried cloud seeding to trigger artificial rain, without success.
But none of it has helped ease the pollution crisis that sparks anxiety among the city's 20 million people - particularly among parents of young children.
Khushboo Bharti, 31, says she shudders every time she remembers the night of 13 November, when she had to rush her one-year-old daughter Samaira to the emergency.
I remember her waking up with a violent cough that made her vomit several times, Ms Bharti says.
Since then, Ms Bharti is constantly on the edge. Even if she coughs just a few times, I panic.
Samaira has now recovered, but other parents fear that the lethal air may have caused irrevocable damage to their children's health.
Research over the years has highlighted the devastating impact air pollution is having on young children across the world - leading to stunted development, weaker immunity, and lower cognitive abilities.
These growing risks have made many parents like Ms Bharti consider moving out of Delhi. What is the point of living in a city where my daughter can't even breathe safely? she asks.
For now, Delhi has moved to limit children's exposure - postponing outdoor sports and shifting primary classes to hybrid mode. But for hundreds of thousands of economically disadvantaged children, the onslaught on their lungs is enormous.
