Personally, I think death is only traumatic because we leave it so late to introduce it to our children and make a big deal of it - I have NEVER been traumatised by death (and many of my loved ones have died). You don't have to be blunt and say "bird's dead, whaddaya want for lunch?" but it's a great idea to talk about it together NOW before the negative associations kick in.

I dunno, maybe I'm weird that I can see positives in death, especially when living means pain and suffering. But I can't see that it's all bad.