For heavens sakes, no one here is saying that AP is "evil!" I think this is simply the wrong forum to look to for advice on this matter. This forum is for childcare providers-people used to taking care of multiple young children at once. Most providers realize that having a child in care who has no idea how to self-soothe is a recipe for disaster. We cannot lie down with every individual child until they fall asleep, and we certainly can't breastfeed toddlers in our care before naptime! As the majority of providers with their own kids probably started their daycare when their kids were young, of their kids were born into it, AP is not something that would have worked for most of us, whether we wanted to or not. Therefore we are not going to have a lot of strategies for transitioning kids brought up this way. You would probably find more advice on a forum meant for Attachment Parents.

Personally, I think you are in for a long, hard battle. The older kids get, the more resistant they are to change, either because it frightens them, or simply because a lot of young kids are creatures of habit - they want what they want because it is familiar and comforting, not because they physically NEED it. A healthy child in the western world who has adequate food intake does not NEED to breastfeed. A child who is 2 1/2 and has never been taught to comfort or soothe herself is not going to take kindly to having the thing that she uses for comfort taken away. Absolute, no-wavering consistency is the only way she'll learn, and it will probably still be a long, difficult process for everyone. I don't have any more advice than that.