Please read details before answering. Is it brainwashing?

I once read that the notion of god is imprinted on a child's mind just like, in the experiment with ducks, the babies believed that coke bottles were there mothers after being exposed to them at a critical age. The author when on to conclude "since children are unlikely to believe if they are not exposed early", then it is important to expose them to the notion of God. This doesn't seem logical. If a belief is not natural, unless we are exposed to it at a very early age, then doesn't this constitute a form of brainwashing? If the truth of God is so real, then why do children have to have those values pushed on them when they are young ? Isn't it better to discover Truth than have it shoved down ones throat?