Kieran Ponders Death

So Kieran has been puzzled and bothered by death for the past six months. At first we thought it was a passing issue, but it has recently intensified again. He is very weirded out by bones in food, bones in the museum or doctor's office. He asks tons of questions whenever we pass a roadkilled animal (how did it die, will it get alive again). I tell him that once something dies it does not become alive again, but then I gently change the subject. At night when I am laying with him he talks about how his body has meat and bones and blood, in a very serious and even somber tone. He will no longer eat fish if he can see the bones on my plate.

When we were visiting Tiller, Oregon, Kieran went with Maranda to see the grave site of her Grandfather. Over six weeks later he is still asking Maranda questions about the grave site, if the bones are still there, if she "carried" her grandfather to the grave when he died, etc.

I have always been of the mind that death should be treated as a natural and normal part of life when engaging a child, kind of the way it would have been treated for most of human history. We don't hide the fact that we eat animals or that Daddy hunts deer that we eat (he is a huge fan of hunting by the way, he just doesn't like to dwell on the outcome). We have always known that Kieran is a very sensitive and perceptive child, and given his latest intensified concern over death I am starting to reconsider our approach. For certain, a child who is just shy of four years old is way too young to be having an existential crisis over the mortality of animals and human beings.

Going forward we will avoid situations that trigger these thoughts (avoid the natural history museum for instance). I don't think we can suddenly start telling him that death doesn't really happen, nor would I be comfortable with this fiction. Any other thoughts from anyone, we are open to any ideas?