Well, I'm only part-way through the Sil, but you have brought up a valid, Tolkienesque contradiction. First of all, though, I can say with definite definitiveness that the Elves are not the oldest. They were the first of Illuvatar's children to be appear in Middle Earth, but there were other creatures there before them.
I don't think Bombadil falls into this category rightly, because he is called "fatherless" (by Gandalf?), which would indicate something other than having a creator, in my opinion, and there has been wide speculation that Bombadil is, perhaps, Illuvatar-embodied, and walking around Middle Earth.
Now, on to Treebeard: yes, he is said to be the oldest of all living things, but Fangorn (yeah, the forest) is also said to be the oldest of the old. So which is older? Treebeard or Fangorn? Or are they one and the same, in terms of "time" of origination? (I note "time" as such, because you must keep in mind that Eru and the Ainur existed outside of the dimension of Time until some of them left to become the Valar and entered into Time. Confused? Yeah, me too!)
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- Eve
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