Former US president George HW Bush has greeted Christmas Day in a Texas hospital, following a second night in care after experiencing breathing problems.

Bush, 90, was admitted late on Tuesday to Houston Methodist Hospital and was spending another night there as a “precaution,” his spokesman Jim McGrath said.

• Ex-US president Bush Snr in hospital

“President Bush had a good day and his prognosis remains positive,” McGrath said in a statement late Wednesday.

“He will remain at the Houston Methodist Hospital tonight as a precaution.”

The 41st US president and the oldest of the four living former US presidents, Bush, who is wheelchair-bound, has seemed frail in recent public appearances.

He was previously treated at Houston Methodist in November 2012 for bronchitis, and ended up spending nearly two months as a patient there.

The former president’s wife, Barbara Bush, nearly one year ago was admitted to the same Houston hospital where he is being treated.

Suffering from pneumonia, the former first lady was released in January.

Bush, patriarch of one of America’s most prominent political dynasties, is father to former US president George W Bush.

Another son, Jeb, just last week announced that he was laying the foundation for his own 2016 White House bid.