Do we need to re-train?

My son is 18 months old and currently naps once a day (1.5-2 hours). We sleep trained him around 5 months and he’s never been a good sleeper but since then we’ve been able to put him down awake in his crib and he falls asleep on his own. He still wakes up 2-3 times a night. More recently, however, he has needed more assistance with falling back asleep during his night wakes. Milk or his pacifier used to help, but we’ve cut those out and now he relies on butt pats or back scratches until he’s back asleep and this takes forever. For naps, he’s still able to fall asleep right on his own. Do you think we need to re-sleep train for these night wakes? It feels like whenever we remove a crutch (milk, paci, etc) we end up adding a new one.